Tales From Gotham City: It's not who I am underneath
by alanish2
Summary: Timmy idolises the Batman. He's dedicated himself to becoming like him when he's older. But then the Batman is accused of murdering six people, and Timmy's life falls down around him. Now he's involved in a race against time to solve the biggest riddle of all - who is the Batman?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

That day was the most important of my life. It's weird… I didn't realise it at the time, but it changed me. Or maybe it just made me recognise the person that I'd always been, I don't know. But it was the day that I stopped being a kid. The day I stopped being Timmy…

It was the end of summer, and I could feel the chill in the air as soon as I woke. I knew that soon the streets around my home would be covered with fallen leaves, and I'd have to swap my t-shirts for sweaters. Summer was always a strange time in Gotham City, and now more than ever – the bright sunlight always seemed at odds with the dark, frightened mood of most of the people who lived there. Of course, I was only thirteen, and I hadn't had chance to see the world for what it was. I still believed in black and white. I suppose… this is the story of how I came to see the world in all its ugly, nuanced glory.

Of course, it started like any other day. Don't they all?

The schoolyard was buzzing with excitement – the news had filtered through that the terrorist we all knew as the Joker had been captured. For the last couple of weeks there had been a sense of dread covering everyone that I knew, even us kids. Though the explosions and the danger had all been at the other side of the city, it had seemed like people were just waiting for it to reach us, and ruin our lives. The teachers reeked of it, and so did the parents. I guess it was inevitable that it would rub off on us as well.

But it was over now. At least, that was what people were telling us – the newsreaders said it, the police were saying it, the teachers… The Joker was behind bars, and this was the first day in weeks that they hadn't started the day by warning us about how dangerous it is out on the streets.

"Hey, Timmy", a voice called. I was in the usual spot I occupied after school - sat on the steps outside the cafeteria, eating the small lunch that I had prepared myself that morning. I looked up and saw the smiling face of my friend Eddie.

"Hey", I replied. "What's up?"

Eddie sat down on the steps beside me. "Nothing much", he said. Then he stayed silent for a long moment.

I took a long look at him. I could tell that there was something bothering him – he was avoiding looking at me, and whenever he did that I knew that he was hiding something. He was pretty easy to read.

"Eddie", I said. "What's up with you? You've got a face like a smacked ass. Did Josie break up with you or something?"

Eddie frowned and shook his head. Josie was Eddie's girlfriend, and had been for almost a year. Most of my friends only stayed with their girls for a few weeks at a time, so it was refreshing to see Eddie putting in a bit of commitment. I hadn't had a girlfriend for a long time. Although, I admit, there were a few girls who were interested. The problem was always that I just wasn't.

"No!" Eddie replied, offended at the suggestion. "Nothing like that. It's just… her mom is still forcing her to go straight home after school. And she's not the only one – Jim, Carl and Dan are all heading straight home after school as well. It sucks. I thought that with the Joker locked up things would go back to the way they were".

I nodded my understanding. There was definitely a change in people's moods since the news broke, but they were still frightened – I could see it in their eyes. There had always been crime in Gotham – a lot of it. But it was just… mobsters and murders. There had never been someone who just tried to break people down before. People were still reeling from it, and they were scared of it happening again.

"Give it a bit of time", I said. "People will calm down again eventually. When everything else goes back to the way it was, people will too. And in the meantime, you'll have to make do with hanging out with just me".

Eddie didn't seem satisfied. He leaned back on the stairs and scrunched up his face. "Yeah… maybe", he said. Then, after a brief pause, he changed the subject. "Hey Timmy, listen to this one".

I rolled my eyes. Eddie was my best friend, and he was a great guy, but he had one annoying habit – riddles. He was always telling riddles, and he always had a smug smile on his face when he asked one that people couldn't figure out. But I always could, and it bothered him, so he had dedicated his life to finding a riddle that I couldn't work out.

He sat up with a serious expression. "I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space. I am essential to creation, and I surround every place. What am I?"

I smirked, and he knew that I had the answer. It was an easy one.

"The letter 'E'", I replied. "That was an easy one, Eddie. Try harder".

"Gah", Eddie cried. He stood up and looked down at me. "One of these days", he said, waving his finger at me. "One of these days I'll find one that you can't get, and then you'll get what's coming to you!"

He spun round and walked away, and I watched him go. After about ten yards he stopped and looked back. "Well?" he called back. "Are you gonna get off your fat ass or what?"

I grinned and followed him.

* * *

After school we always went to the local martial arts club. The guy who ran it was Eddie's older brother, James. We always called him 'Spider', because whenever we sparred with him it always seemed like he was fighting us with four arms and four legs.

I don't know why I was so into martial arts. I guess it was because of what happened the night my mom died. It was… almost two years before. The Batman had been active for just a month or so, and everyone still felt good about him being out there. But someone had come to Gotham to destroy it. I don't know who or why, but he almost pulled it off.

Anyway, I was walking back to my mom's apartment with her. It was in the narrows – the worst part of Gotham, which is saying a lot. It was filled with scumbags and weirdo's, and, unknown to us, there had just been a break out at Arkham, the local nut house. The streets were slowly filling with criminals and crazies, and we were right in the middle of them, oblivious.

Three of them came at us from the shadows. They grabbed my mom, and she screamed so loud that it hurt my ears. One of them turned to me and started waving a knife in my face. He probably threatened me, but I can't remember anything that he said. All I can remember is the shine of the knife that he held inches in front of my face.

And I ran. I left my mom behind. I never saw her again.

I've hated myself for it ever since. I didn't even try to fight for her… I was too scared. It didn't matter to me that I was only an eleven year old kid, and there were three grown men attacking us. Even if I stood no chance at all, I still should have tried. So I learned how to fight, so that it wouldn't happen ever again.

Anyway, me and Eddie walked into the club. Spider was in there, sparring with a couple of older kids. He saw us and waved, and we nodded back to him. Then we spent a couple of minutes just watching him spar. He was good – better than either of us at least. We'd made a bet a few months ago over who would be the first of us to get good enough at fighting to take Spider down. Neither of us had even come close yet.

Suddenly, Eddie punched me on the shoulder – hard – and ran onto the mats. I cried out, and rubbed my shoulder.

"Stop whining, you pussy", Eddie shouted. Then he raised his hands and beckoned me over. He wanted to spar.

I walked over onto the mat and readied myself. In truth, I could never beat him. He always seemed to be able to figure out what I was about to do, so when I went in to attack he had already decided how to counter me. And that was what happened this time as well. I dived in without really thinking. I tried to grab his shoulders, planning on wrapping my leg around the back of his and forcing him down onto the mat. But he sidestepped me and grabbed me right arm as I fell past him. He swung me around and dragged me up over his shoulder, and he slammed me down onto the mat. Then he rolled on top of me and forced me down.

"I win again", he said smugly.

I smiled thinly. I would never have admitted it, but the way he always beat me made me really angry. It seemed like no matter how much effort I put in I was never good enough.

"Yeah, well", I said. "Next time I'll bring a fucking baseball bat and break your legs".

Eddie laughed and rolled off me. We both stood up just as Shadow was walking over to us.

"You want a drink?" Eddie asked. I nodded, and he walked off without acknowledging Spider.

"Hey", Spider said.

"Hey", I replied. "How's it going?"

Spider sighed. I don't know exactly how old he was – in his twenties, if I had to guess – but he was much taller and bigger than me. "Same old", he said wearily. "So I saw you sparring with Eddie. He kicked your ass".

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah…" I replied. "I'll get him next time".

"Not if you're still fighting like that you won't". Spider folded his arms across his chest and looked at me. "You're not anticipating anything. It's not just about being stronger or faster than your opponent… you have to be smarter. Eddie's beating you because he can figure out how you're thinking, so he knows what you're gonna do before you do it. You need to be unpredictable, you know?"

I nodded. "Thanks", I said. Eddie was walking back over to us. Spider looked up at him, and then he walked away. I knew there was something going on between the two of them, but I didn't want to ask about it. If Eddie wanted me to know about it then he'd tell me, I figured.

Eddie handed me my drink and we spent a while sitting and talking.

It was about ten by the time I got home. The front door was already wide open, which I knew meant my dad was home. He was a truck driver, and he often worked late into the night, so it was odd for him to be home so early. And it was a bad thing for me.

* * *

Me and my dad had a… strained relationship. My parents had got a divorce about three years ago. My mom moved into her apartment in the narrows while my dad stayed in the house out in the west side of the city. I'd followed my mom into the narrows – she was the one who had always been there with me when I was growing up while my dad was away working, so it felt natural to go with her. My dad didn't want the hassle of taking care of a kid. Or, at least, that was the impression that I always got.

But that had changed when my mom died. I was lumbered with a horrible sense of guilt, and my dad was lumbered with me – a kid that he knew nothing about, and who he didn't know how to deal with. And so I'd directed all of my anger and guilt at him, and I blamed him for forcing her out into the narrows, where she had been killed.

I closed and locked the door as quietly as I could and crept into the living room. My dad was asleep on the couch, bottle still in hand. The lights were off, which meant that he must have been out before the sun went down, which was at least a couple of hours ago.

I sighed, and moved to turn the TV off. But when my eyes locked on to what was on the screen, I froze. It was the news.

The headline, which scrolled across the bottom of the screen, read 'The Batman murders six people'.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Details are emerging of a series of brutal murders committed through the night, shortly prior to the capture of the terrorist known as the Joker. We can now go live to hear from Police Commissioner Gordon".

I slumped to the floor, dumfounded. I had already decided that it must be a mistake. The Batman wouldn't kill anybody, right? He helped people. The doubt had already started to creep into my head as I watched the news broadcast. The female newsreader wore a deathly serious expression as she spoke, and as she handed over to a live reporter outside the Mayor's office the scrolling headline at the bottom of the screen changed. Now it was telling me that the Batman had murdered two police officers, as well as Harvey Dent, the new district attorney.

That last name hit the hardest. Harvey Dent, the man who had done more to clean up this city than anyone, other than the Batman, had been murdered. It felt like someone had punched me in the chest. My head filled with questions – why would he do something like this? Why would he kill cops and DA's? It didn't make any sense. Wasn't he on their side?

No, it had to be a mistake. I refocused, and dragged my eyes back to the TV screen. The image I saw was an old man. At least a dozen microphones had been shoved in front of his face, and I could see the weariness in his eyes. This was a man who did not want to be there.

"Commissioner!" a man's voice said from off screen. One of the reporters, I guessed. "Commissioner, can you give us any more information about these killings?"

The old man, who I now realised was Police Commissioner Gordon, rubbed his face before he spoke. When he spoke, his voice was… weary, I guess is the best word to describe it. Like he was too tired to speak.

"At approximately 10:30pm last night word reached me of a series of murders which included two police officers, including Detective Michael Wuertz of the Major Crimes Unit, as well as known mob boss Salvatore Maroni, and District Attorney Harvey Dent. Evidence suggests that these murders were committed… by the vigilante known as the Batman".

There were murmurs from the moment he'd mention Harvey Dent's name, coming from the people off camera. It sounded like a large crowd had gathered.

Gordon cleared his throat before he continued. "As of now, the Batman is an outlaw. We will be putting together a special team to hunt him down, and I urge anybody with any information about his identity or his location to come forward. This man is a vicious killer, and anyone around him could be at risk.

"Alright… does anyone have questions?"

The reporters erupted into a cacophony of cries, each trying to get their questions across at once. A man in a suit, who had been standing beside Gordon almost out of shot, moved across and gestured at the crowd to calm down. When the noise had died down, he pointed to one of the reporters.

A woman's voice came through the TV speakers. "You said that the evidence points to the Batman", the woman said. "What evidence, exactly?"

"Eye witness accounts", Gordon replied quickly. "The last of these murders – the killing of Harvey Dent – was committed in close proximity to a police operation".

"So…" the woman said. "The eye witness is a member of your police force?"

Gordon looked down, and there was a long pause. Then he raised his head back up and continued. "I was witness to the murder of Harvey Dent", he said. As he did, his voice started to crack. "We pursued the Batman for a short time, before losing him in the Palisades".

More murmurs came from the reporters. I couldn't believe what I was hearing – this man was a pillar of the community, someone that every person in the city trusted. Why would he be spreading these lies about the Batman? It must have been some kind of conspiracy to bring him down. Or maybe Gordon was being threatened in some way… There had to be some explanation. There had to be…

Another reporter – a man this time – started to speak. I shuffled even closer to the TV and tried to take in every word. "Commissioner", he said. "Your department has long been rumoured to be in league with the Batman, with some even suggesting that the Batman was a cop himself who had been sanctioned by the MCU –"

The TV screen suddenly went black. I turned to look behind me, and I saw the drunken face of my father, and I saw the remote control in his hand.

I did my best to stay calm. "I was watching that", I said through gritted teeth. "Put it back on".

My father leaned forward slowly. His eyes were drooping and his chin was covered in stubble. It was pretty obvious that he was only half awake.

"Where the hell have you been, boy?" he growled.

He was staring daggers through me, but I held his gaze. "You were out cold when I got back", I answered through gritted teeth. "What, I should have woken you up to let you know I was back? You're grumpy enough. Now put the TV back on".

His head suddenly shot forward until it was almost touching mine. I could smell the horrible stench of beer and sweat, and I struggled not to gag.

"You've seen enough of that shit", he shouted. "Get your ass to bed".

I held his gaze for a few seconds longer, and then, wordlessly, I turned back to the TV and reached my hand out towards the power switch. But before I could flip it, my dad rose out of his seat and grabbed my shoulder, screaming as he did so.

"Don't you dare!" he screamed. "Get to bed now, or I swear to God I'll drag you up there myself!"

I pulled away from him, and the force ripped my shirt sleeve off leaving a piece of tattered cloth in my father's clenched fist.

"I hate you!" I screamed. Straight away I could see the hurt in his eyes. He was drunk, and he was angry, but he was still my father. I like to think that I felt a pang of guilt at that moment – even a slight regret at what I'd just said – but the truth is that I was so angry and upset that anything I said or did seemed… right.

We stared at each other in silence for a moment. He wore a face like I'd just slapped him, and I was breathless even though I hadn't done anything. Then I slowly walked across to the door, grabbed my coat and walked out into the night.

A few moments later, and I was running away as fast as I could. I heard my father calling my name, but I didn't look back.

* * *

I was always afraid of the orphanage. I mean, it was a big old building – it looked like an ancient church, with arch windows and a huge wooden door. But it was more than the way it looked or the way it felt. It was like… to me, this place symbolised the absence of hope. Of course, I don't mean that every single orphan has no hope, but I knew most of the kids in this place and… let's just say they weren't exactly the cream of the community. Something had led them astray, and the orphanage was all they had in common.

And I was one step away from there. If my dad decided that he couldn't cope with me, maybe I'd end up in this place as well. The thought terrified me.

But I wasn't there to dwell on that. I needed to speak to someone… vent some stuff, you know?

I stood outside the giant wooden doors that led inside the building, and I shivered. It had started to rain – the fine stuff, where you can barely notice it but you end up drenched anyway. I didn't want to go inside, and I definitely didn't want to try and get through those doors with no one noticing. So I circled around the building, to the back where the bedrooms were. I'd been here a few times, and I knew which window I was aiming for.

I peeked through a gap in the curtain. Beyond, I could see maybe four beds that were covered with white sheets. Each bed had a motionless figure in it. I knew they were only sleeping, but I couldn't help but think how much it looked like a morgue – they could have been corpses lying there waiting to be burned or buried…

That thought dug its way into my head so much that, when I tapped on the window, I half expected none of them to move.

But, slowly, I saw the figure in the bed closest to me stir. It rolled over, and as it did a head moved out from beneath the sheet. It was Eddie. He rubbed his eyes, and when he saw me he frowned and sat up. It looked like I'd woken him up.

He unlocked the window and I moved out of its way as he pushed it open.

Eddie looked at me and smiled. "And I was having such a nice dream", he said.

I smiled back weakly. "Sorry", I said. "I need to talk to you".

Something in my face must have told Eddie that I was upset, because a concerned look crept across his face. "What's up?" he asked, and he shifted position so that he was leaning a little out of the window.

I sat down beside him and leant back against the wall. "I don't know…" I said, feeling stupid even as the words came out of my mouth. "I had a row with my dad".

Eddie snorted. "So what's new?"

"I know", I said. A moment of silence passed before I spoke again. "Did you hear about the Bat?" The blank look on Eddie's face told me that he hadn't. "They're saying that he murdered people. That he's a bad guy. I don't believe a word of it".

Eddie curled up his nose. He knew how much I idolised the Batman, ever since he'd saved my life. Before that, even – the idea of someone putting his life aside to help people had just… struck some kind of chord with me.

"So…" Eddie breathed. "What do you want to do?"

I moved my hands behind my back so that Eddie couldn't see my fists clench. Truth is, I didn't know what I wanted… other than a whole new life.

"What do you want, Eddie?" I asked, trying to divert the question.

I wasn't looking at him, but I heard him sigh. There was a long pause before he answered.

"If you break me, I do not stop working" he started. "If you touch me, I may be snared. If you lose me –"

I stood up and interrupted him. "Sorry, Eddie", I said loudly. "I'm not really in the mood for riddles". I looked at my friend, and his eyes were wide and sad… and I didn't know why. And I did something then that I have regretted ever since. I didn't ask.

I heard the click of a door opening from inside the building, and saw light from a corridor trickle into the room.

"Hey", a woman's voice called. "Close that window and go to bed!" It was one of the matrons of the orphanage.

Eddie glanced over his shoulder and then back to me. "Just one more riddle, Timmy", he said. I opened my mouth to protest but he waved me silent.

"Who is the Batman?"

I looked at him with a shocked expression, and then my face softened into a smile.

Eddie smiled back at me. "Go home", he said.

I looked down at my feet, still smiling. "Yeah".


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_You could die… at least tell me your name._

I was sat in class, with my teacher stood in front of me giving us a lecture about… something to do with triangles. He might as well have been speaking Chinese for all the attention I was paying to him. My mind was miles away - that night kept playing over and over in my head. The night my mother died… the night I was almost killed. The night that the Batman saved me.

After I had… _abandoned _my mother, I ran out into the night. I ran so far and so fast that I soon found myself on the edge of the island, near one of the bridges. There was a group of people there. People who looked like cops. I approached them, and tried to tell them about what had happened to my mom. They shoved me away.

And that's where my memory starts to get a little hazy. I remember a woman being there, comforting me. But I can't picture her face. I remember… _crazy _things. Impossible things. Things that could have come straight out of a nightmare.

There were… _demons _attacking us, and a horse that breathed fire ridden by a man made of straw.

"Timmy".

I was frightened of the things that I remember from that night. Sometimes, late at night, I wondered if maybe I'd gone insane, and if everything that happened after that was in my head…

"…are you paying attention to anything I'm saying?"

I don't know… maybe the stress of what had happened to my mom had gotten to me, or maybe there was something else going on that I don't know about. Either way, every time I think back to that day I feel the same _fear_ that paralysed me then. And I hate it.

"Timmy!" I jumped as a hand slammed down onto my desk. I looked up with wide eyes into the angry face of my teacher.

"What did I just say?" he said. I could tell that he was angry – his voice always stayed perfectly level when he was mad, but when he wasn't he spoke like… like a radio presenter. The tone of his voice went up and down so much it was almost comical.

Anyway, of course I hadn't been listening, so I had no clue how to answer him. The blank look on my face must have been answer enough, because he took his hands off my desk and stood up.

"Lines after class, Timmy", he said simply, and carried on with his lecture. Even though my mind was full of conflicting emotions that were threatening to drown me, I still managed to feel bad about not listening in class. I'd always been the 'good kid' at school, you know? Always handed my homework in on time, always paid attention, and – while I was by no means a straight-A student – my grades were always pretty good. I didn't want all this other stuff to ruin my education.

So I shook my head and tried to dislodge all of the thoughts about the Batman and my mother, and concentrated on what my teacher was saying for the rest of class.

* * *

I hated detention. That was the point of it, I guess, but I always felt like the teachers enjoyed keeping students back after school just to spite them. The classroom was empty except for me and my teacher, who was sat at his desk at the front of the room grading test papers. Every so often I'd hear him tut, and I would watch him scribble corrections across the papers. Other than that, the only sound I could hear was the scratching of my pen on paper as I wrote lines.

The one good thing about writing lines that day was that it was monotonous enough for me to let my mind wander as I did it.

_What do I do? _I wondered. _What can I do? It's not like I can just magically figure out who the Batman is, and even if I could, what would I do then? Would I go and talk to him? _

I couldn't help but smile as I imagined how that conversation would go. Me knocking on the door of a stranger's house. _"Hey"_, I would say. _"This might be a little out of the blue, but I know that you're Batman and I wanted to know if you're really a psycho killer, because if you are that would really get me down"_.

No, that was a stupid idea. And what's worse, I _knew _it was a stupid idea, but I still couldn't get it out of my head. I _wanted _to know who he was. Before I'd been content with the idea that he was just, you know… the goddamned _Batman_. But now I wanted to know the face of the man behind the mask, so that I could look into his eyes and know for sure if he was the person that I thought he was, or if he was what the police said he was – a killer.

_You could die… at least tell me your name._

And I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd forgotten something important from that night. Who else was with me, and what were these flashes of conversation that kept finding their way into my head?

"OK", my teacher said suddenly, once again cutting straight through my thoughts. "We're done. Go home".

I packed up my things and left.

* * *

I hadn't gotten ten steps out of the classroom when I heard a familiar voice call my name.

"Timmy!" It was Eddie, and Josie, his girlfriend, was following behind him.

I smiled when I saw them. After an hour's worth of detention it was nice to see a friendly face. "Hey guys", I said, and gave them a wave. "How's is going?"

Josie smiled at me. She was still wearing her school uniform – they both were – and her arm was wrapped around Eddie's. I guess, looking back, I always had a thing for her. Of course I never tried to act on it – it didn't even cross my mind, not as long as she was with Eddie.

"We're good", she said. "My mom finally agreed to let me start staying out after school again, about a week too late. I wanted to go shopping, but Eddie wanted to spend two hours waiting around for you. And now, to serve him right, I'm going home".

_Two hours? _I thought. It hadn't seemed that long. I guess my mind had wandered further than I thought.

"Hey", Eddie said, protesting. "We can still go out somewhere. Timmy can come, too".

Josie leant forward and kissed Eddie on the cheek. "Haven't you ever heard that three's a crowd, baby?" she said softly. Then she waved goodbye, and left me and Eddie alone.

I looked at him. "You know, you didn't have to wait around for me", I said, though I was grateful that he had. "You've been waiting for Josie's mom to start letting her out on an evening for a while now. How come you didn't hang out with her more?"

Eddie looked at me, and I swear I could see a strange kind of… _sadness_ in his eyes, as though he wanted to say something but couldn't bring himself to. He forced a smile before he answered.

"I've been thinking", he said. "About what we were talking about last night".

He started walking, and I instinctively kept pace with him.

"You mean about the _Bat_?" I asked. Eddie nodded. "What about it?"

"Do you still record everything that you see about him?" Eddie asked. "New reports, documentaries, all that crap?"

I looked down at my feet. I didn't know that Eddie knew I did that. I was embarrassed about it – I figured it would make me look like some kind of obsessive fanboy. But it was true – every little thing I saw on TV, every newspaper or magazine article… I kept copies of them all. I kept telling myself that one day I was going to watch it all and try and see if there were any clues to who he was. I had never gotten around to it.

When I didn't answer, Eddie continued speaking. "I thought we could go back to your house and watch through it", he said. "You never know, there might be something in there. You still want to know who he is, don't you?"

I looked at him dead in the eyes. The truth was, I still didn't know _what _I wanted. But this was a way forward…

_You could die… at least tell me your name…_

…a way to set myself apart. Maybe even find a bit of purpose.

_...at least tell me your name…_

_It's not who I am underneath…_

Yes, I thought. I did want to know who the Batman was.

And it never occurred to me to wonder why Eddie did.

* * *

Five hours later, and after trawling through countless news articles and tapes, we were both exhausted. We had gone back to my house – my dad was working the night shift again, so we had the place to ourselves. The living room floor was now covered with bits of paper and discarded tapes.

I collapsed to the floor. "There's nothing here, Eddie", I wailed. "This was all just a waste of time".

Eddie crawled towards the small pile of tapes that we hadn't watched yet. He grabbed one from the top of the pile and stuck it into the TV.

"There are still a few tapes left", he said softly. "Might be something on them. You never know".

I sat up and he moved backwards until he was sat next to me. He grabbed the remote from me and hit play.

The blank screen suddenly filled with the image of a crowded room. There were cameras all around, and a group of what I figured were journalists sat at the centre of the room facing an elevated stage. On the stage stood a man whose face was familiar to everyone in the city.

_"Now you all know why I'm here", _the figure on the TV said. _"I'm here because the Batman has offered to turn himself in…"_

"So what are we watching?" Eddie asked me.

I grabbed the box that the tape had been in. The label read '_Joker demands Batman unmask: News conference'_.

"You remember the Joker phoned in to a news broadcast and said that if the Batman didn't unmask then he'd kill people every single day?" I said. "He offered to do it. To unmask, I mean. Called a news conference. This is a tape of that conference. In fact, I bet most of the tapes that are left are of this news conference – I got it from a bunch of channels, from different angles. I figured it might be a major event, you know?"

Eddie scrunched up his face. "Shouldn't we have started with this?" he asked. "Seems like a pretty safe bet this would be our best chance of catching him".

The voices from the TV were still echoing out into the room. _"…the night is darkest before the dawn…"_ This conference was engraved in my mind. When it was first broadcast my eyes had been glued to the TV. I stayed awake all that night thinking about what had happened… It seemed like years ago.

"He probably didn't even go there himself…" I replied, though I didn't really believe what I was saying. "They say it was a trick. A trap that they set up to try and catch the Joker".

_"…He should turn himself in…"_ The tape was almost finished. I always felt a chill run down my spine whenever I thought about this part…

_It's not who I am underneath…_

"You don't really think that the Bat would ask Harvey to take the fall for him, do you?" Eddie asked, sceptically. "Even if it was all a trap? The Bat works alone".

I nodded, absent mindedly. My eyes were now once again glued to the TV, like they had been the first time I had seen this news broadcast. Harvey Dent was about to become a hero.

_"Very well…" _he said on screen. _"Officers… arrest the Batman"_.

My eyes widened…

_"I am the Batman"_.

…but not because of the things I had seen before. It was because of the things that I had never noticed before.

_…at least tell me your name…_

I dived across Eddie and grabbed the remote from him. I hit the rewind button.

_"…Officers… arrest the Batman"_

And there it was again. Clear as day. How could I have never seen it before.

_It's not who I am underneath…_

I hit rewind again.

_"…Officers… arrest the Batman"_

And again…

_"…arrest the Batman"_

Again…

_"…Batman"._

And then I paused. Eddie was looking at me, but there must have been something in my face that told him it was a bad idea to interrupt.

_You could die…_

What had I seen? What did it mean?

_…at least tell me your name._

A man stepped forward. One single man, while everyone around him was looking around over their shoulders… _one single man _took a step forward.

It was him… and suddenly the memories came flooding back…

_Wait… You could die… at least tell me your name_

_It's not who I am underneath… It's what I _do _that defines me…_

It made sense, in a weird way.

_We lost him heading out towards the Palisades._

It definitely explained a lot.

_It's what I _do _that defines me…_

My heart was pounding. Harder than I ever thought possible. I turned to Eddie and I tried to tell him, but the words wouldn't come however much I tried.

I knew who the Batman was. It was right in front of us, on this tape.

_…at least tell me your name._

_ It's not who I am underneath… It's what I _do _that defines me…_

_ …_

_ …Bruce?_

I started to panic. What was I supposed to do now? I never imagined this would actually work. Should I tell anyone? What about Eddie… had he seen it too?

_…at least tell me your name._

_ …Bruce?_

_ …Bruce?_

_ Out towards the Palisades…_

_ …Bruce?_

…

Bruce Wayne is Batman.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

I felt warm sunlight hit my eyes, and saw its glow through my eyelids. It was the morning after, and the cold, lifeless feeling that had crept inside me showed no signs of releasing its grip. I opened my eyes, squinting in the brightness, and sat up in bed.

Last night… had I really seen what I'd seen? Had it been real, or was it all just a dream? I rubbed my eyes, and looked across my room. The piles of tapes that me and Eddie had trawled through were still strewn around the floor.

_Eddie_, I thought. _I wonder what he thinks…_

When I'd… seen what I'd seen last night, there was a long moment when I couldn't think of anything. My body wouldn't move, and Eddie must have sensed something was wrong. He asked me about it, which shook me out of my daze a little, but I snapped at him and told him to leave. I didn't know what he'd seen – he'd been looking at the screen, same as me, but whether he realised what we were seeing was another question.

As I got ready for school my mind raced – what would I say to him when I saw him? Should I tell him the truth? When we'd set out to try and figure out who the Batman was, I never dreamed that we would actually succeed. Now the knowledge had started to eat away at me.

No… I couldn't tell anyone, I knew that. All I needed was a little time to figure things out. There had to be something I could do with this knowledge, even as dangerous as I knew it was.

I tip-toed down the stairs, hoping to sneak out of the house before my dad knew I was awake. I'd heard him come home a few hours ago – I hadn't gotten much sleep. I wasn't as angry as him as I was before, but I didn't want the hassle of trying to talk to him when there was so much already going on in my head.

Unfortunately, he was already down there waiting for me. Hell, I doubt he'd even managed to stagger up to bed since he'd come home. I heard his voice mumble my name, and when I turned around I saw him slouched on the couch, like he always was, bottle in hand. I moved towards him a little, stepping over the coat and shoes that he'd left in the middle of the doorway.

I stopped just inside the living room, and I stood with my arms folded. I hated even looking at him when he was in that kind of state. Believe it or not, when he and my mom were together he was a really good dad. I mean, sure, he was away a lot because of his work, but when he was around he was always taking us out and we were… _happy_.

A lot of things had changed, though. Mom and him split up, and he ended up in this house on his own… and then she died, and he was suddenly lumbered with me. I think, that morning, staring at his drunken, half-awake figure was the first time I'd realised that he'd lost just as much as I had. And I felt… _sorry _for him. It was a sign that I was finally starting to grow up a little, and start thinking of things outside my own head.

I walked over to him and picked up the chair cushion which had fallen to the floor beside his feet. I gently lifted up his head and slid the pillow beneath it before turning to leave for school. Before I go to the door, I once again heard my father mumble my name.

"Timothy…" he said. "Sit down, son… I… need to…" His words trailed off. He was clearly in no state to talk.

"I know, dad", I said softly. "We'll talk later. After school".

My words fell on deaf ears. He had fallen asleep.

* * *

That morning was as cold as any I can remember. The walk to school took twice as long as usual because of the treacherous ice that covered the pavements. Every breath sent white steam shooting out of my mouth, and I had my coat hunched up as far as it would go. Still, I couldn't stop myself from shivering.

It was so cold outside that it was actually a relief when I finally got to school, even though I knew I'd be spending the next six hours bored out of my mind.

The school was a new building, but it still looked worn down. I guess there wasn't enough money flying around for its maintenance, or even to keep it clean. The walls were covered with grime, and there was more than one boarded up window. But at least the heaters worked.

As I approached the school gate I saw Josie stood waiting. I assumed she was waiting for Eddie, but I went over to her anyway, smiling. The smile faded, though, as I got closer and saw her face. Her eyes were wide and red. She looked like something horrible had happened to her.

"Hey", I said. "What's wrong?"

Her eyes flicked towards me, and then, suddenly, she threw herself forward and wrapped her hands around my neck, hugging me. We spent a few moments like that, in silence.

When she finally released her grip and moved away, I saw that she had started crying.

"Tim", she sniffed. "Me and Eddie broke up".

"What?" I said, surprised. Josie and Eddie had been together for almost a year. I had started to think that they would be forever. The idea that they would break up had seemed ludicrous to me just the day before. "Why? What happened?"

"I don't…" Josie said through the tears. "Can we just… not talk about it, please? Can we just go inside?" She was pleading with me, and I made me uncomfortable. Something else was going on, that much was obvious. But it didn't look like I was going to find out what from her. I nodded.

The smallest of smiles spread across her lips, and she wrapped her arm around mine. We walked inside together.

* * *

That day at school seemed like the longest day ever. Eddie wasn't there, which worried me. Whenever he'd had a day off school before he always told me why, but that day there was nothing.

I don't remember a single word that was said to me that day, by the teachers or my friends, save for my conversation with Josie. I was in a daze, thinking about not just Eddie but… what I'd learned the night before. I needed Eddie. He was the only person I could talk to about what I'd learned, and about what I was thinking. But would he even want to listen to me after he'd broken up with Josie?

As soon as school had ended I ran all the way to the orphanage. I ran straight around to the window at the back, hoping that Eddie was just sleeping. I looked through, but the room inside was empty. The front door was locked – as it always was – so I slammed my fists down hard over and over again.

Eventually, I heard the sound of the locks clicking open, and the door slowly crept open. It was the matron – the old battle-axe who was in charge of the place. She must have been six feet tall, and just as wide. But she wasn't fat – she was built like a truck. I guess she had to be tough to be able to handle an orphanage full of angry teenagers.

"What on Earth do you think you are doing, young man?" she said. Her voice was deep, and she spoke as though she came from a posh background. I knew that Eddie hated her – he'd told me enough times – and now I could see why. She was talking down her nose at me, as though I was nothing. It grated, but I wasn't there to argue with this woman.

"Sorry", I said, still breathless from running there. "Is Eddie in there? Please? It's important that I talk to him".

Her face contorted in a frown, and she sighed. "No", she said. "He isn't here. But he left something for you. At least, assuming you are Timmy. I wouldn't know, since you haven't introduced yourself".

A message, I thought. Why wouldn't he just come and meet me somewhere? I nodded. "Sorry, ma'am", I mumbled. "I'm Timmy".

She disappeared from the doorway for about a minute – long enough that I started to doubt whether she was coming back. When she finally did return, she was carrying an envelope, which she handed to me.

I looked at it for a few moments, not understanding. Then I mumbled a 'thank you' and walked away.

When I was out of view of the orphanage I stopped and ripped open the envelope. Inside it was a single small piece of paper with a message written on it.

I frowned as I read the words.

'_The first is a person who lives in disguise who deals in secrets and tells nothing but lies._

_Then think of a letter that's last to mend the middle of middle and end of end._

_Now think of a sound which is often heard in search of every unknown word._

_Put it together and answer me this, which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?'_

A riddle. Why would Eddie leave me a riddle as a message? None of this was making sense. If he wanted me to find him, then why not just tell me where he was? Why play games?

I sighed deeply. _OK_, I thought. _A riddle. That's OK._

It was a tough one, though. I needed to think about each part separately.

_The first is a person who lives in disguise who deals in secrets and tells nothing but lies…_

Lives in disguise and deals in secrets… For some reason, the answer to this came into my head as scenes from one of those crappy secret agent TV shows where the main character dresses up in a different disguise in each episode. The answer was a _spy_.

_Then think of a letter that's last to mend the middle of middle and end of end…_

This part was easy. Too similar to the riddle that Eddie had asked me a couple of days ago in school. The answer was the letter _D_.

_Now think of a sound which is often heard in search of every unknown word…_

I smiled at this part. My mind was filled with the dozens of times our teachers as school had picked on a kid in class at random and asked them to answer a question. Whoever they picked, the same sound always escaped their lips before they tried to answer. _Errrr…_

OK… so that was the three parts figured out. It was time for the last part.

_Put it together and answer me this, which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?'_

Put them together… simple enough. And then it suddenly clicked in my head, and I knew where I was meant to go.

_Spy_

_D_

_Errr_

…

_Spider._


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The school martial arts club was held in one of the athletics halls each night. There weren't many students who wanted to attend. Not regularly, anyway. There were always people showing up the odd time, and then never coming back once they realised how tough it was. I always thought that was a good thing. It meant that I knew whoever I was staring at across the mat was just as dedicated to it as I was.

But that day I wasn't there to spar. Eddie's riddle had led me here, to talk to Spider. And, as I walked through the doors to the hall, he was the first person I saw. And he was beating the hell out of someone on the mats.

Seriously, the guy he was sparring with was just as big as he was, but Spider was throwing him around like a rag doll – flipping him over and slamming him down on the mat. I walked slowly over to the side of the hall, never taking my eyes off the two. Spider's style was... _aggressive, _to say the least. There was no wasted movement – everything he did was designed to hurt his opponent, and make him think twice about getting back up.

The beating went on for another couple of minutes, before the other guy accepted the inevitable and gave up.

Spider walked to the edge of the mat and grabbed a towel. He was still out of breath when I approached him.

"Hey", I said, waving. "What's happening?"

Spider glanced up at me. "Nothing much", he replied. "You?"

I paused. "Ah..." I hesitated. "Sorry. I'm not sure how to say this... Eddie's missing".

A thin smile spread across Spider's lips. "Missing?" he repeated. "Since when?"

"Last night", I answered. "He broke up with his girlfriend and hasn't been to school today".

Spider laughed out loud. It surprised me – I knew that they weren't exactly close, but I still expected him to at least be a little worried. Instead, he just carried on with what he was doing.

"Timmy", Spider said. "How long have you known Eddie?"

I frowned. "A couple of years", I replied. "Why?"

Spider stood up and walked over toward the lockers. I followed a couple of steps behind him.

"When he was a bit younger he used to run off on his own every other day", Spider said. "He was a... _sensitive_ kid. It didn't take much to set him off, but when he got upset he used to try and shut himself off from everything and everyone else. To be honest, I can't really blame him after..."

Spider's voice trailed off, but I thought I knew what he was talking about. Eddie and Spider were brothers, and they were orphans. There had always been... something bubbling away under the surface, and I _knew_ that it had to do with his parents. But he never told me. I started to realise that there were an awful lot of things that Eddie never told me.

Spider shook his head and continued. "Hey, you know he's got this obsession with riddles, right?" I nodded. "That has to do with out parents. I said that when he was little he was sensitive, but he was also pretty damn smart. He was into books and puzzles, crap like that. So our parents took him out and bought him a massive book of riddles. They were probably hoping that it would keep him quiet for a while. That was the last thing they ever gave him. They died a few minutes after.

"He's never talked to you about it, has he? Not surprising, I suppose... it was a pretty horrible time. Like I say, my parents took us out to do some shopping. Just after they'd bought him his book of riddles, they sat us both down on a park bench and told us to wait while they went into the bank and paid off some debts. So there we were, sat on a bench on our own... and I got bored, and I left. Hell, I figured they'd be back in a couple of minutes, right? I had places to go, people to see... so I left Eddie on that bench on his own.

"But they never came back for him. They were hit by a speeding car outside the bank – some police chase or other, there were dozens of them a day back then. My mom died instantly. My dad made it to the hospital, but did last much longer than that.

"But none of the paramedics, none of the police... no one knew that Eddie was still sat on that park bench. He must have been sat there for six hours or more. He read that book of riddles from cover to cover while he waited.

"When they finally got hold of me, I was the one who went back to get him. And straight away, even before I told him about... mom and dad... his eyes were _cold_ to me, you know? He hates me. Has done ever since then. And I don't blame him. I know that I'd hate me too..."

Spider went quiet. I'd been listening intently to his words. Eddie had never told me any of this. I mean, I understood why he never had, but it was still a shock to hear something like that about one of your friends.

I needed to find him.

I cleared my throat. "Eddie left me a message", I said, trying to hide the crack in my voice. "Telling me that you might know where to find him".

Spider looked at me with a frown. "He did, huh?" he said. "Well, that must mean that he's gone to the place he always used to go. You know under the park? There's a sewer opening leading out into the ocean. He used to always climb in there and sit and mope. That's probably where he is".

I nodded. That must be it. Eddie wouldn't have pointed me towards Spider if it wasn't. "Thanks", I said, and I turned to walk away.

"Hey", Spider called after me. "Be careful".

* * *

I could smell the sewer from half a mile away. The park above was always deserted because of the stench, and it had fallen to pieces because of it – the plants and the grass were overgrown, and the swings were nothing but rust. A symbol of how this city was decaying.

I climbed down the back of the park, down to the sewer opening. When I got down there I had to struggle not to gag. I lifted the collar of my jacket up and wrapped it around my face, trying to block out the stench. Why would Eddie come to this disgusting place? How could he stand it? I was starting to doubt that Spider had sent me to the right place, but now that I was there I couldn't leave without checking it out.

I crept towards the opening, struggling not to slip over on the slime covered stone under my feet. As soon as I was close enough I grabbed the side of the opening, and used it to drag myself forward. I was already covered in dirt... and worse.

Just inside the opening there was a turning which led away from the constant stream of sewer water that ran along the floor. If Eddie was here then it made sense for him to be along that way. At least, that was how I convinced myself to go that way instead of walking up the river of shit that went in the other direction.

"Eddie", I called out as I crept slowly around the corner. There was no answer other than the echo of my own voice. The further in I got the darker it became, until I had to struggle to see anything.

"Eddie!" I yelled again, a little louder. Still no answer, and I started to become convinced that he wasn't here. But then I saw a trickle of light coming from around a bend maybe twenty feet ahead. I felt my way along the wall until I reached the bend.

Eddie sat on a dry bit of ground just around that bend. He had a torch with him, which cast light on him eerily. He had his knees bent against his chest, and his arms resting on top of them. His head was leant back against the wall, and his eyes were closed.

I stood and looked at him for a few moments. His face was so... unhappy. I don't remember seeing it like that before.

"Eddie", I said quietly. "What are you doing down here?"

Eddie didn't move, but I heard him breathe in deeply. "I like it here", he said softly. "It's quiet. Lets me think".

I walked over to him and sat down beside him. The smell of the sewer was still there, but I was starting to get used to it. At least, enough for me to breathe without gagging.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "Josie told me you broke up. I don't understand".

Eddie's eyes suddenly opened wide. "What else did she say?" he asked nervously.

I frowned. "Nothing, man. She just said that you broke up. To be honest, I don't think she wanted to talk about it at all. That was all she said". Eddie's eyes relaxed, and he closed them again.

Eddie waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah", he said. "We broke up. What's the big deal? We're kids. Kids break up and make up all the time".

"Yeah", I said. "But I always thought that you two would last, you know? I _like _Josie".

Eddie looked at me angrily. "Then why don't _you _go out with her?" he yelled. He must have seen my eyes widen – Eddie had never shouted at me before. "Look, I just didn't want her, OK?"

"So..." I said slowly. "What _do _you want?"

Eddie looked at me with the saddest eyes I'd ever seen. And then he sighed. "If you break me  
I do not stop-"

"Eddie" I interrupted angrily. "No riddles, OK? This isn't the time. Just tell me straight".

Eddie looked at me for a few moments longer, and then he lowered his head and looked away. I knew then that he would not tell me, and I didn't want to push it. I was a little scared of the answer, I guess.

"Last night", Eddie said, changing the subject. "You figured it out, didn't you?" I nodded. "And you're not going to tell me, are you?" I shook my head. Eddie paused, and I could tell he was a little angry. "Fine. I get it. You're probably right not to tell anyone. But I've got a little something for you"

He shoved his hand in his pocket, and pulled out a scrap of paper. It was a cutting from a newspaper. Eddie handed it to me, and I unfolded it slowly.

The headline read _"Hero cop survives attack by the Batman"._ As I read the article, my eyes widened. It was about a woman... a _cop_ who was apparently attacked by the Batman, but who survived.

_Anna Ramirez..._

"Whatever really happened that night", Eddie said as he stood up. "She knows".

I nodded slowly. If I could get to her in private, I might be able to convince her to tell me the truth. _Maybe_.

I stood up and followed Eddie out of the sewer. I needed to talk to this woman...

_Ramirez..._


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

When I reached home that night I was still covered in the slime from the sewers, and the stench was overloading my senses. I showered – probably the longest shower I've ever had – and threw the clothes that I had been wearing in the trash bin outside. It wasn't until after I'd done all of that that I noticed the house was empty.

_Strange..._ I thought. I had been meant to be having a heart to heart with my dad that night – something which I had completely forgotten about when I'd found out that Eddie was missing. Where was my dad?

I walked into the living room, and it was there that I spotted the note that had been left in front of the TV.

_'Timmy'_, it read. '_Sorry I had to leave before you got back. I know we were meant to talk tonight, but work phoned about an hour ago and I can't wait around any longer. I'll be gone for a couple of days. The freezer is full, and I've made some sandwiches and left them in the kitchen for you to take to school. Your Aunt Sally says she'll check in on you tomorrow after you get home from school, so try and make sure you're here when she does._

_'Talk to you later._

_'Dad'_

I wasn't that surprised - he disappeared for days sometimes – but this was the first time he'd gone without telling me in person. It was my fault, I figured, for staying out looking for Eddie for so long... but still, I hated being in this house on my own. This wasn't the Narrows, but it wasn't exactly a crime free area. There was no such thing in Gotham, not back then.

_Oh well_, I thought. At least I'd have the space I needed to figure out... everything. I had kept the newspaper article that Eddie had given me, and I pulled it out of my pocket and read through it once more.

_'Hero Cop Survives Attack By The Batman...'_

_'The masked vigilante known as the Batman's reign of terror', _the article read, '_has already claimed six lives, including that of beloved District Attourney Harvey Dent, and has prompted a full scale manhunt. And yet, from this devastation there is a little piece of good news. One victim of the Batman has escaped with her life after bravely fighting off his vicious attacks._

_'Lieutenant Anna Ramirez, one of the lead members of the Major Crimes Unit responsible for the apprehension of the terrorist known as the 'Joker', was attacked by the Batman late in the night two days ago. Despite suffering severe injuries after taking a hard blow to the head, Anna Ramirez has survived to tell her tale...'_

It went on to talk a little about her service record – she spent a bit of time at homicide before being hand-picked by Commissioner Gordon for a place in the MCU – but strangely didn't feature an interview with the woman herself.

I needed to speak to her. And, thankfully, now I knew exactly where to find her.

* * *

I'd never skipped school before. I mean, I wasn't a straight-A student by any stretch of the imagination, but I always showed up and I always handed in my work on time.

Which made it feel even stranger to be walking through down town Gotham in the middle of a school day. I don't know why... I felt like every person I saw was looking at me with suspicion in their eyes – _why aren't you in school? I should call the police..._

Of course, I was just being paranoid. These people were just on their lunch breaks. They were far too wrapped up in getting a meal before they had to get back to work to worry about what a kid was doing out of school.

Still, I walked with my head lowered and my coat hunched up around my neck. I was going to spy on someone, after all.

I rounded a corner, and my breath left me. I was face to face with the MCU building. That is, what was left of it. I'd seen on the news a while back that there'd been an explosion. They didn't say it, but everyone knew it was the Joker that set it off. No doubt part of his psychotic plans for the city. The Batman was the one who stopped him, I knew, no matter what the papers said.

I stopped at a street bench opposite, and I waited for a familiar face.

I was there the best part of an hour before I saw the person that I wanted to see. Anna Ramirez... the "hero cop" who survived an attack by the Batman. She was leaving he building in a hurry, and she did not look happy. I needed to find out where she lived... I knew I wasn't ready to talk to her yet, but at least when I was I'd know where to find her.

I stood up quickly and waved my arms in the air frantically, trying to hail a cab. Ramirez had climbed into a banged up old motor and was about to pull away. Thankfully, a cab screeched to a halt before she could pull out into the road. I pulled the door open and dived inside.

"Hey", I said breathlessly. "Follow that car".

There was an awkward moment of silence as the driver looked over his shoulder at me. Then he sniffed, rubbed his face, and turned back to face forward.

"How old are you, kid?" he asked. His voice was cracked and deep, as though he'd smoked far too many cigarettes.

"Um.." I answered. "I'm thirteen. Why?"

"Shouldn't you be in school or something?" He still sat with his arms by his sides, staring out of the front windscreen.

I started to twitch in my seat. She was getting away, and I could tell that this guy was enjoying being difficult. I shoved my hands into my pockets and pulled out my wallet, and I pulled out the thirty dollars that my dad had left me.

"There's thirty bucks in it for you if you'll just follow that car", I said, trying to make my voice as stern as possible.

There was another pause, and I started to think that he still wasn't going to budge. I slumped in my seat.

Then he moved his hands – he released the handbrake, and the cab started to move. "Fair enough", he said.

I sighed in relief. It was thirty dollars down the drain, but it would be worth it. I was sure of it.

Then something caught my attention on the radio. A name, just barely audible. I asked the driver to turn the volume up, and I listened to the broadcast.

"_In something of a lighter story", _the voice on the radio said. "_Billionaire playboy and owner of Wayne Enterprises Bruce Wayne was taken to Robinson Community Hospital yesterday morning after a night of alcohol fuelled excess caused him to fall down the stairs to his penthouse apartment. It seems that Mr Wayne had just a little too much fun..."_

Robinson Community...

My heart had just jumped about half a yard up my throat. Bruce Wayne was in Gotham Central... what kind of injury could he have got? I knew that the Batman threw himself into life threatening situations every time he appeared, but he always seemed untouchable. The footage I'd seen on the new was..._unreal. _Insane car chases, diving off rooftops... he seemed like a superhuman.

But now I knew he had a human face I could understand how vulnerable he could be. He was just a man...

"Hey, kid". The driver's voice shook me out of my thoughts. "Car's stopped. What now?"

I looked out of the window. Ramirez had stopped outside a small house in the middle of nowhere. There were a bunch of houses in a circle, surrounding a small playground in the centre.

"Where are we?" I asked the driver.

"Darwin Street, in the East End", he answered. "Aren't you gonna go talk to her?"

I thought for a few seconds. I _could _go talk to her, I knew. But I had no idea what to say to her.

Besides, there was someone else I needed to talk to. Someone who I wanted answers from.

"No", I said. "Take me to Robinson Community Hospital".

* * *

The building was surrounded by people. It looked like half of the patients that were evacuated from Gotham Central had wound up here, and considering Robinson Community was about half the size, that wasn't a good thing.

After giving the cab driver the thirty dollars I'd promised him, I went inside. The smell of disinfectant hit me as soon as I got through the doors. I hated it. I wasn't used to how _clean _the place smelled, which I suppose is just one of the sad things about my upbringing.

The lady behind the desk looked dead behind the eyes. She smiled at me, but there was no warmth behind it.

"Hello", I said to her in my most polite voice. "Could you tell me what room Mr Wayne is in please?"

The woman carried on smiling, but she shook her head. "I'm sorry, sweetie", she said. "But we've been asked not to let anyone disturb him". Her voice was flat, and it had a high pitched nasal whine to it.

I was being stupid. Of course they wouldn't let anyone get to him. He was _Bruce Wayne_ for God's sake. I smiled at her and thanked her, and then I headed straight through to the wards. I would just have to search through the building until I found him.

I knew he wouldn't be in any of the communal rooms – he'd have his own private room – which at least cut the search area down a little.

I wandered the corridors for almost an hour, desperately trying to look as though I knew where I was going. I didn't want anyone stopping me and asking me what I was doing, because, frankly, I couldn't come up with a decent answer.

Eventually – finally – I overheard someone mention Wayne's name.

"Mr Wayne is fine", I heard a man say. "He's right through here. He's sleeping".

"Good", I heard a woman respond. "I'll relieve you. Get yourself home".

I heard footsteps coming towards me, so I ducked into a wash room. The man strolled past without slowing down, and I released the breath that I'd been holding in. Who was he? Why was he keeping tabs on Bruce Wayne? And who was the woman that he'd left behind?

I inched my way to the door and pushed it open a little. I could see the room that Bruce was supposed to be in, but there was no sign of any woman in the corridor. Suddenly, I again heard footsteps, this time coming from the other direction. A man walked past me – a huge man, dressed in doctor's robes. He stopped outside Wayne's room, and he looked around as though he wanted to make sure there was nobody around.

Suddenly, and seemingly from out of nowhere, a woman in a suit appeared behind the man. She grabbed his shoulder and moved her other arm to his neck. Blood burst from it, and sprayed all over the door. The woman stood back and watched as the man thrashed around, before collapsing to the floor. The body was still twitching, but she turned away and pulled what looked like a phone from her pocket.

I was shitting myself. When the blood started to pour, I had to force myself not to throw up. My mind was screaming at me to get the hell out of there, but my legs wouldn't move.

"Hello", I heard her say. Even in my shocked state, I knew that what she said would probably turn out to be important, so I forced myself to calm down and process her words.

"This is Shiva checking in", she continued. Her voice... was that an Indian accent? Somewhere around there, at least. "The Hospital is now secure".

She stopped speaking then, no doubt listening to whoever was on the end of that phone.

"And Bruce Wayne? Shall I deal with him?" she asked. I almost jumped through the door there and then. Was this woman going to murder Bruce Wayne? I had to do something.

"Understood. I'll take care of it", she said. "Tell out Lady that I will not light the fire until she is ready".

Then she hung up the phone, shoved it back into her pocket and turned back to the door to Bruce Wayne's room.

My hand was already moving, before I'd even processed what was happening. There was a large metal container right next to me, and I grabbed it. It was weird... I knew that I should have been scared, but I was filled with a terrible sense of... calm.

I walked through the door to the wash room just as the woman entered Wayne's room. I _slid_ along the floor, silent... like some kind of assassin. Looking back, I don't know where I learned it. I didn't think I was capable of anything like that.

I walked calmly into the room – the woman was standing over Bruce Wayne, who was still asleep in his bed. She held the knife in her hand. The knife that she had just used to murder the strange man outside – a doctor, or so it appeared. The blood was still dripping from its blade.

She was going to kill him. I was certain of it.

I raised the container, and I hit her as hard as I could over her head. She crumpled onto the floor ina heap, knocked unconscious with one blow...

The container fell from my hand and bounced off the floor. Who was this woman? Every fibre of my being wanted to get out of that place, but I had to know.

I knelt down beside her and searched her pockets. After a few moments, my hand came across something that I assumed was a purse or a wallet. I pulled it out and opened it, and my breath left me once again.

It was a badge...

An FBI badge... the name across the bottom read "Argenta Rudra".

I had just assaulted a Federal Agent.

I stood slowly, trembling as I did, and walked silently away from the two comatose bodies, back out into the corridor. At the first corner I came to, I put my hand back into my sleeve and pulled the fire alarm. The noise pierced the silence, and I flinched as it hit my ears. The corridors quickly filled with people, but by then I was far enough away to avoid suspicion.

I heard a woman scream from far behind me. The scream pierced the barrier that I'd put up, and the horror of what had just happened hit me like a sack of bricks. I ran out of the building as quickly as I could, not stopping until it was completely out of sight.

I leant against a wall, breathing heavily, heart beating hard in my chest.

I just assaulted a Federal Agent. What was I going to do?

And then another thought hit me, just as hard as the first. But this thought... it made me feel _good._

I just saved someone's life. And not just _someone..._

I just saved the Batman's life.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

_Oh God. Oh Jesus... _

I was in the worst state I had ever been in. I still can't remember everything that happened that day, it was such a blur...

After leaving Robinson Community, the next thing I remember is walking down my street towards the house... I guess I must have _walked_ all the way home. It must have taken _hours_. My mind must have been too far gone to hail a cab...

I heard a sound – something familiar, though it didn't register at first. Something came into view, but it was just shapes.

"Tmmmm"

A voice. That's what it was... someone was speaking to me. And whatever the shape was, it was coming closer and closer. My heart was still pounding in my chest and I was out of breath, but my mind started to click into gear. My vision cleared a little, enough to make out that the shape in front of me was Josie.

"Timmy!" she yelled at me. It must have been written all over my face. Something had happened to me that could never unhappen, and I knew I wasn't going to be the same ever again...

* * *

The next thing I remember Josie was handing me a mug of coffee. We had moved into my house, and were sat in the living room. The haze had cleared a little, and I was starting to wonder just what she was doing there.

I looked across the room at her suspiciously. She was still wearing her jacket even though it was warm inside. Every time I made eye contact with her she turned her head away as though she were hiding something.

"Josie", I growled. "Why are you here?" I knew that she was a friend – I _knew _that. So why couldn't I shake the feeling that she was going to hurt me? Was this how I would be from then on – paranoid, suspicious of everyone? I forced myself to calm down, and I slowed my breathing and calmed my heartbeat.

"I... I..." she stammered. _Shit_, I thought guiltily. _Now I've scared her. What's wrong with me?_

I stood and moved over to sit next to her. "Hey", I said as softly as I could. "Hey, I'm sorry. It's been a... a really bad day. Tell me what's wrong".

Suddenly, she burst into tears and threw her arms around my neck. She buried her face into my chest and, instinctively, I put my arm around her. All of a sudden my own horrors faded away, and I was left comforting a girl who until then I'd only ever seen smiling.

"Hey", I said again. "Josie. It's OK. You're OK". After a few moments she lifted her head off my chest and sat back up. She still wouldn't look me in the eye, but her crying had almost stopped.

"Come here", I said as I stood. "Let's get this jacket off, and then I'll get us something to eat. OK?"

She nodded, silently, and I leaned over her and helped her take her jacket off. As soon as her right arm slipped out of the jacket sleeve I saw the bruises, but neither of us said a word. I just carried on helping her take off her coat. Once it was off, I walked wordlessly across and hung it up on the wall.

Silence. For what seemed like an age I just stared across at her, and she had her eyes to the floor.

Could this day get any worse?

"What the hell are those?" I said. The anger that I had felt earlier was bubbling back to the surface, but I forced myself to stay calm. Josie was a victim of... _whoever _had done this.

_Whoever_... I knew full well who had done this. I clenched my fists.

Josie burst into tears again, but I made no move to comfort her – something I've regretted since.

"I... He..." she tried to say, but her words were drowned out by her crying. She gritted her teeth and tried to push back the tears. When she though she was ready she tried again.

"It was the night before yesterday", she said. "He'd spent most of the night here, remember? I was meant to be meeting him out at the old building site at midnight...

"When I got there, he was sat on his own in the darkness... with his back to me. I walked up to him without speaking... I figured I'd surprise him, you know?

"He... he had a knife. He was cutting himself. I saw it over his shoulder, and I cried out. He looked at me with... with these _eyes_ that I've never seen before. Like he wanted to kill me. So much anger in them...

"He grabbed me by the hair... _screaming _so loud at me. _'What the fuck are you staring at?', 'Stop looking at me'... _He just completely lost it. Started punching me... all over my body. I screamed and screamed, but we were all alone...

"When I saw you yesterday morning... I wanted to tell you what had happened, but I just... Every time I tried to say it I felt really scared. Like there was something stuck in my throat that just swallowed the words before they could come out..."

Her voice trailed off. I stood still, staring at the floor, fists still clenched tight. There were a lot of things I wanted to say – '_You should have told me', 'Why didn't you do this?', 'Why didn't you do that?'..._ But they were all accusing. All putting blame on _her_ when I knew that it was all Eddie.

And then there was the obvious question. '_Why didn't you call the police?'_

The image of that... woman's FBI badge kept crawling into my mind. The last thing I wanted was the cops coming anywhere near me.

I wordlessly walked towards the door, grabbing my coat as I passed it. "Go home", I sighed. "Tell your parents what's happened. Call the police. And don't worry... he won't touch you again".

She stood up, eyes wide. "Timmy", she cried, moving towards me. "Please, don't. Don't tell him I told you. Don't talk to him at all".

She was scared of him now. I wondered if that was what Eddie wanted, to make her frightened to close her eyes. I turned to look at her, and she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw my face.

"I'm not going to _talk _to him", I growled.

* * *

It was getting dark by the time I reached the orphanage. And _cold_... I could see my breath turn to steam in front of me as I walked. I was trying to figure out how I would handle this... In my head, I knew that I needed to be delicate, at least until I got Eddie out in the open...

I walked up to the front door, and I put my boot into it as hard as I could.

"_Eddie!"_ I screamed at the top of my lungs. So much for being _delicate_. "_Get the fuck out here _now".

There was no answer, and I kicked the door again and again. I marched around to the window at the side of the building and smacked my hand against it.

"_Eddie!"_

I could see other kids waking up, wondering what the hell was going on. Their faces were frightened, but they barely even registered. My eyes were fixed on Eddie's bed which was right by the window. There was a bulge in the sheets, as though someone were asleep underneath them.

"_Eddie! Don't you dare ignore me!"_

I banged on the window some more. There was still no movement.

I was in a blind rage by then. Nothing was going to stop me from getting to him. I could just about make out the sight of the matron of the orphanage in the room inside, strolling towards the window. But I was already moving. I knelt down and grabbed the largest rock I could reach, and I flung it straight throgh the window.

The glass shattered into a million pieces, and fell to the floor with a crash. The rock carried on flying into the room, and barely missed the matron as it went. I dived half way through the window and grabbed Eddie's bed sheets, ripping them away.

"_Eddie!"_

…

Eddie wasn't there. The bulge that I'd seen was just pillows piled up on the bed.

He wasn't _there_. Where the hell was he?

My eyes fixed on the matron, who was now stood right over me.

"What in God's name do you think you're doing?" she shouted. "Mark my words, the police will see to this!"

Her words didn't penetrate the wall of anger that had overtaken me.

"Where is he?" I growled. "Where is Eddie".

"What?" she yelled again. "That's why you're here? I told you last time that he hasn't been back. Now get out away from here!"

_Hadn't been back_. I stood there, still staring at her, while the words slowly processed in my mind. He never came back here after we talked in the sewers. He never came back here...

My fists slowly relaxed as I realised what I was doing. I'd never been that angry before, in all my life, and now that it was wearing off I was frightened of it. What would I have done if Eddie _had _been there? I was ready to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze the life out of him. I was ready to _kill _him.

Was it just... the adrenaline of what had happened that day being released? Or was this some.. terrible rage that had already been there inside me, waiting for a moment when it could push its way to the surface?

My breathing slowed. My eyes widened, and softened. I released my grip on the window pane, and I took a few nervous steps backwards. For this first time since I got there, I saw the frightened faces of the other kids in the orphanage – some of them were just... little children. Maybe six or seven. They were probably terrified of me.

I ran away into the night.

* * *

I don't know where I thought I'd go, but of course I ended up in the only place I had. _Home_.

Josie was long gone. If she took my advice and told her parent what had happened then no doubt the police would already have been called, which meant I'd be getting an... unwanted visit from them pretty soon.

_Damn you Eddie_...

I pushed open the front door. I think, looking back, I noticed the smell straight away... but I didn't care about it. I let my jacket drop to the floor, and I collapsed on the couch where I stayed for the longest time. My head was pounding...

A drink... that was what I needed. Something _strong_. I knew that my dad always kept whisky in the kitchen. Usually I hated the idea of drinking – I thought that if I started I might end up like my dad. But, right then, that thought didn't seem so bad.

I stumbled towards the kitchen, but I never got there. I saw the note on the door. Josie must have left it, I figured. I unfolded it and read the words...

"_I am always hungry,  
I must always be fed,  
The finger I touch,  
Will soon turn red"_

A riddle. I knew who'd put it there. And, all of a sudden, the smell that I had ignored when I came inside the house filled my senses. It was gas.

_Fire_

I heard the ping of the microwave, and I swear I _heard _it spark.

And then my world was rocked by a massive explosion. Everything became... _heat_, and _fire... _and _pain. _

And then everything became dark.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

The moments after the explosion are... a blur. But I remember the _ringing_. My ears were filled with it – it engulfed me completely, and drowned out my senses. I get flashes of images in my head, but the truth is that even now I can't really remember what happened.

Sometimes I see my house on fire. I think... from the angle I must have been lying flat out somewhere in the middle of the road just outside what was my front door. If it is a real memory then it means that I had to have been thrown a full ten or fifteen feet straight through the door... I see the flame rising high above me into the night sky, and the smoke floating even higher above that. The walls had already collapsed – just fragments of it still stood in defiance against the flames.

And then... another image sometimes flashes into my vision. I was laying flat on my back, and there were people standing over me staring wide eyed. There were stars high above them... but they were being overtaken by the thick smoke, and it was hard to see them. Two of the people looked like paramedics, and they were kneeling down next to me. They looked like they were talking to me, but I couldn't hear them above the ringing.

And then there's nothing...

* * *

When I woke up I was greeted by an unfamiliar sheer white ceiling. But there was a smell floating around the room that was familiar enough... It smelled like a hospital.

My head was pounding, and a green blur pulsed in my vision along with it. I struggled to sit upright in the bed that I found myself in, but I was overcome with a sense of queasiness. I couldn't tell if the queasiness was a result of the explosion, or of the memories that had flooded back to the forefront of my mind now that I found myself back in a Hospital.

I felt a sharp pain in my arm when I tried to move it, and it was only then that I noticed it was in a sling, and was heavily bandaged. Broken... still, it could have been worse. A lot worse.

My eyes darted around the room. There was a chair and a desk beside the bed. The chair had been pulled away and left at an angle – someone had been sitting there recently. My father, maybe? Then I noticed the clock. I had only been out for a couple of hours, and I knew that even if they had contacted him straight away, my father wouldn't have been able to get back to Gotham as quickly as that. Which meant that there had been someone else taking an interest in my welfare...

There wasn't much light in the room. The curtains had been drawn across the window, and they were almost completely blocking out the sun outside. But a light had been left on, which I found odd.

I didn't have time to dwell on it, though. The door swung open suddenly, and a man walked in. He was dressed in white clothes and was carrying a clipboard, so I figured he was a doctor.

"Ah!" he said loudly. "I see you're awake. That's good". He pulled out a small torch and shone it into each of my eyes. "Hmmm... Do you feel any pain anywhere? Other than your arm, of course".

I nodded. "My head..." I mumbled. "Nowhere else".

The doctor scribbled notes onto his clipboard. "Yes", he said. "I imagine you'll have a headache for a fair while. Luckily there doesn't seem to have been too much trauma to your skull... your arm took most of the damage. It's been broken in several places. Make sure that you keep it as still as possible".

He finally looked up at me before he continued. "There is significant burn damage to your torso, which will sting for a while but should heal, albeit with a lot of residual scarring. Other than that, you're fine. Which, given how close you were to a gas explosion, is a minor miracle.

"Unfortunately, we haven't been able to get in touch with your father. Your school tells us that he often works away driving his truck... is that where he is now?"

I nodded wordlessly.

"Hmmm...", the doctor continued. "Well, we'll keep trying to get in touch with him. The police want to have a word with you about the circumstances of the explosion. You'll need to have a responsible adult with you while they speak to you, so they've asked for one of your teachers to come down...

"You're a very lucky young man. This could have been much worse". The doctor looked at me for a few moments, and then he turned to leave.

"Excuse me", I said softly. "Um... someone's been sat in this chair. If you haven't been able to get in touch with my dad... who's been here?"

The doctor smiled. "Oh", he said. "There was a young man here. Black hair, clothes that don't fit... I assumed he was a school friend".

_Eddie..._

What was he doing? I was already convinced that it was him who caused the explosion. No one else would have left a riddle there for me to find. So why would he then come here to check on how I was doing? Unless... perhaps he heard that the explosion hadn't killed me, and he came here to finish the job. The cops probably scared him off...

Suddenly, I felt a horrible feeling... it started in my stomach and worked its way upwards, into the back of my mouth. I grabbed a bowl that had been left beside my bed and I threw up into it.

What was happening? Why was Eddie trying to kill me? It made no sense. We were best friends – we had been for years. Could it be because I found out what he did to Josie? Would he really be willing to kill people to try and bury it?

No... that couldn't be the reason. If he was trying to cover up that he had assaulted Josie then his first target would have been her, not me.

I couldn't stay there. The cops... after what had happened in this very hospital the day before, I couldn't trust them. What if they knew that I'd been involved in the murder of one of the hospital staff, and the assault of a federal agent? They'd... they'd lock me up and throw away the key.

I threw the bed sheets off me with my working arm, and I stood up. My head felt light at first, and I struggled to keep my balance, but after a few moments my head cleared. Looked down at my broken right arm. If I was going to try and run, I needed to get rid of the sling. They'd be looking for a kid with a broken arm, so I had to do my best to hide it. I tried to move it slightly, and pain shot up my arm into my neck. Clearly, I wasn't going to be able to use this arm for anything.

I carefully pulled away at the bandages until the skin underneath was exposed. The skin was blistered – it must have been caught in the fire.

I didn't have any clothes. I hadn't noticed before then, but all I had on was a white clinical overall. I blushed a little... someone must have taken my clothes off and seen me naked... That thought bothered me. After a few moments of searching I found my clothes underneath the bed. There was a little bit of burn damage, and a couple of blood stains that I'd have to be careful to hide, but I figured I'd be able to get away with wearing them. At least I wouldn't need to worry about that.

As I opened the door I half expected there to be a cop stood outside. Instead, I stared out into an empty hallway. Good...

I decided to just stroll out of the front door. To be honest, there wasn't any other way of leaving. I held my head up, and headed for the exit, ignoring the fact that my heart was pounding in my chest.

"Excuse me", a voice called after me. I ignored it.

A few moments passed.

"Excuse me!" the voice called again. I could tell that whoever was shouting was getting closer to me, and I could hear footsteps start to pound against the floor.

I broke into a run a few yards from the door, and burst through them into the sunlight. There was a cab parked outside the hospital and I dived through the door.

"Hey, kid!" the voice yelled.

I slammed the door of the taxi closed. "Take me to Darwin Street, in the East End", I said to the driver. "Quickly, please..." I was almost pleading with him, and I half expected him to say no, but the car moved forward and drove out into the road.

* * *

_Why am I here..?_

To be honest, I didn't have a good answer to that question. Why had I come here, to the house of Anna Ramirez? It just popped into my head when I'd climbed into the taxi. Now I was just... sat outside, in a playground at the centre of the street. I stared at my feet as the swing I sat in slowly rocked backwards and forwards. I'd been there for nearly two hours.

I don't know why I didn't just walk up to her front door and ring the doorbell. If I was determined to talk to her, then why was I hesitating now?

And why was talking to her still so important? Things were happening that should take precedence over finding out the truth about the Batman. I needed to find Eddie and figure out what the hell had driven him so bat-shit crazy. Maybe beat some sense back into him...

But no. The Batman just kept... creeping back into my thoughts.

The curtains in Ramirez's windows twitched, and I saw her face peeking out at me. She'd looked out a couple of times since I got here, and I knew she was wondering what I was doing there.

A few minutes later her front door opened, and she wandered out in her dressing gown. She walked across the road, staring at me as she moved. When she reached me, she sat down in the swing next to me.

We just... sat there in silence for a while, staring at the few cars that passed by. Finally, when I thought I was ready, I spokefirst. "You looked sad", I said. I almost surprised myself. It wasn't what I had in my head, but it was true - she did look sad, and I wanted to know why.

I seemed to have caught her off guard, and her eyes widened for a moment. She caught herself quickly and her face softened, but I'd already made a mental note that she wasn't good at hiding her emotions.

"So do you", she replied, and for the first time I became a little self-conscious. What did I look like after all that had happened? I expect that my face was a little pale, apart from the bits that were burned. I probably looked like I'd been crying, too.

I forced myself to smile, and turned to look at her. "You first", I said softly.

There was a long pause, and Ramirez seemed to be having a bit of internal conflict. Which was good, because it meant she was at least considering telling me the truth. She looked as though she _wanted _to talk to me... and I needed to encourage her to do so.

"I…" she started, and then hesitated. "My mother just died".

That I hadn't been expecting. It brought back memories of my own mother, and a lump formed in my throat. "I'm sorry", I said, and I was only a little surprised to find that I really meant it.

"I did a lot of things to try and stop it from happening", Ramirez continued. "Lots of things I'm not proud of. Things that hurt people, including me. But… now I realise that I never had a chance of stopping it, because some things are just… inevitable…

"But… I can try to make up for the things that I've done. And I mean to do that… soon". Her voice trailed off. Her eyes had slowly puffed up and reddened as she'd talked, and she looked like she was forcing back tears. "Your turn", she said with a thin smile.

I looked at her, and then down at the ground. She'd opened up to me, and it seemed only fair that I did the same. "My mom died nearly a year ago…" I said quietly. "You remember when all of that… gas was released into the narrows? Well, she died then… got killed by... some people. Some of the ones that got out of Arkham, I think. They were wearing those bright orange outfits.

"But I got rescued… first by this woman... I think her name was Rachel, but my memory is still a little fuzzy from then because of the gas. She's dead now, I think… And then we both got rescued by the Batman. He risked his life to go into the narrows to try and help people. Since then he's kind of been my idol. And… one of the reasons I'm upset is because now everyone says that he's a murderer".

Even while I was looking down, I could sense that she'd tensed up. I'd mentioned something that had struck a nerve. Was it the Batman? Or... could it have been Rachel?

I had to get her to relax again. I didn't want her to get nervous and stop talking. Or... maybe I could approach it from a different angle. Her emotions were right at the forefront, as though she just couldn't conceal them. If I told her what I thought, then she'd probably let me know with her eyes whether I was right.

"But I don't believe it", I continued. "As soon as I heard it I knew it was all lies. Batman is a _hero_, and people don't even realise it. So I started to investigate things on my own… I've been learning how ever since I first saw Batman, y'know? Trying to be like him? Anyway, I figured out that Batman was in the middle of a fist-fight with an entire SWAT team, trying to stop the Joker from blowing up two ships full of people, when at least one of those people was murdered.

"It was all shown on the news, so I started to wonder… how come no one else has noticed this? it's gotta be a conspiracy, right? But what reason would anyone have to blame these murders on someone who was innocent? Unless… the real murderer was someone important. Someone who, if it ever came out that they'd done these things, it would cause more damage than if it had been hidden. And I hit on Harvey Dent".

I'd thrown in a couple of things that I had been thinking about, but hadn't been able to prove to myself yet – the stuff about Batman fighting the SWAT team, and especially about Harvey Dent... and just like I'd expected, her answer was written all over her face.

Everything I'd said was right, and she knew it.

Ramirez's eyes had widened slowly as the I had been talking. Now she'd try to lie... try to tell me I was wrong...

"Kid", Ramirez protested. "You're barking up the wrong tree. There's no conspiracy, no cover up… Batman murdered those people, end of story".

I just smiled, thinly. "You don't have to _say_ the words", I said. "You've already answered me with your eyes. I know I'm right… I just wanted to confirm it. Thank you, Lieutenant Ramirez". And with that, I stood and started to walk away, leaving Ramirez staring, mouth open, after me.

When I was about ten yards away, Ramirez managed to speak. "Hey, kid", she shouted. "Who the hell _are_ you?"

I didn't really think before I answered. It was only afterwards that I realised how much of a mistake it had been to tell her the truth. I turned slowly to face her. "My name's Timmy, ma'am", I replied. "Timmy Drake".


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Now what?

I knew the truth, and I knew I had been right all along. But my life was falling apart, and I couldn't see any way to salvage it.

Eddie... Where are you? What are you doing?

I knew that he'd tried to kill me. There was no doubt in my mind by then. But I had no idea _why_. We were best friends, weren't we? We had been for years. We did everything together, and there had never been even the slightest suggestion that he hated me...

I had to find him and talk to him. And, after leaving Ramirez, my feet had taken me towards the school. It was getting late in the evening and I knew that it would be almost deserted other than fro the martial arts club...

And I was right. The club was in full swing, and there were over a dozen kids, some of them sparring on the mats, other stood around the edges watching. But I couldn't see Spider. The person I wanted to talk to wasn't there. My fists clenched, and I found myself filling with frustration. Was this who I was now? Getting angry at every obstacle I came across?

Spider was _always _there. Each and every night. There was nothing more important to him than this club. So what could have drawn him away? I looked around the room again and again, half convinced that he _was _there and I just couldn't see him.

But no matter how hard I looked, the result was the same. These people were just... kids, fighting each other. I walked across to one of the empty chairs which were dotted around the edge of the hall and sat down, my head in my hands.

Now what? There was nowhere to go, nothing to do... I didn't know where Eddie was, and my knowledge about the Batman was useless without a plan. Tears began to flow. Looking back, I guess that was the moment that it all caught up to me. My home was gone. My best friend had tried to kill me.

I sat with my heads between my knees, and I watched as tears dropped to the floor between my feet.

"Uh..." a voice close by said, nervously. "Are you OK dude?"

I lifted my head, and looked at the source of the voice. It was a boy, a little younger than me. He was standing on the mats – he must have been sparring, but when he noticed me he stopped. He had this look on his face... like he felt sorry for me. I hated the way it made me feel.

And that's when I realised that I wasn't alone. My life wasn't over. All I needed to do was pick myself up and carry on, if only so that people wouldn't look at me like I was the most pathetic thing they'd ever seen.

I forced myself to smile at the boy, who I'd seen around school but never really talked to. I knew that my eyes would still be red from the tears, but as soon as I smiled the boy seemed to relax a little.

"I'm fine", I said softly. "Hey, you know where Spider is?"

The boy shrugged. "Dunno", he said simply. "Haven't seen him. He hasn't been here at all today".

I frowned. I couldn't remember a day that Spider hadn't been to the martial arts club. Hell, he damn near lived there.

There was nothing there for me, I knew. Even if I could find Spider, there was no guarantee that he'd be able to help me find Eddie.

I stood up, and I left.

* * *

Outside, I took a moment to breathe in the cold air, and try to think of my next move. My mind was blank.

But first, there was someone I needed to talk to... who I hadn't even thought of until that moment. My father.

There was a payphone just outside the school grounds, and I headed towards it. There were still a few kids hanging around – it was coming up to 5pm, and all of the school clubs that ran were starting to kick people out. The crowds kept building as more people came out of the school, and the more people surrounded me the safer I started to feel.

The payphones were clear, and I picked up a handset and shoved all of the change I had in my pockets in. Luckily, my father had made me memorise his number, just in case... something bad happened.

I heard the dial tone. It rang once. Twice. Three times.

"Hi, this is Mark Drake. Leave a message", my father's voice said. _Shit_, I thought. _Answer phone_. I thought about hanging up, but I realised that I had no idea what my father knew. Had he even head about the house? Or about me being in hospital? I owed it to him to let him know what had happened.

"Hey, dad", I said into the phone. "Listen... I don't know what you've heard, or whether anyone's been able to get in touch with you, but I need to tell you what's been happening. Although... you're not gonna believe most of it.

"OK... where to start...

"I tried to figure out who the Batman was... and, you know what? I did. I know, dad. I know everything. I went to try and talk to him, but some people were already there. I ended up hurting someone, and I'm not sure if I should have or not...

"Since then everything's been getting more and more messed up. It's Eddie, dad. He's lost it. He beat up his girlfriend, and then he tried to kill me. He tried to _kill me_, dad. I don't know what to do.

"And... Christ, I don't know how to say this, so I'll just come out with it. The house is gone. Blown up. I don't want to go into it, but I'm sure it was Eddie. But now I don't know where he is, and I don't know what he's doing. He could come for me again any time...

"Should I run? Maybe I should just get the hell out of here and not come back. I know that would leave you here on your own, but isn't that what you've been wanting? I mean, deep down? You never planned to take me in, and I know you haven't been able to cope with me that well... maybe it would be for the best.

"But then I'd never know what the hell's going on...

"I need to find out more about Eddie's state of mind... try to figure out why he's suddenly started to hate me so much. And... I think I've figure out what I should do next...

"I'll see you soon, dad".

* * *

Josie's family were pretty rich. Her dad was some big-time accountant who raked in a huge salary every year. Her mom was the stay at home sort. I'd heard Josie complaining endlessly about never having any time to herself while she was at home because her mom was always there looking over her shoulder. To me that sounded... nice. To always have someone there you could talk to if you needed to.

Their house was huge, and it was surrounded by a tall metal fence. I stood maybe fifty yards away, across the street. On the way over there I'd been worrying about whether she'd gone to the police after what happened between her and Eddie. They were looking for me, I was convinced of it... and if there were any cops in the house then this would be a very short trip.

But there were no signs of cops nearby. Hell, there was no sign of any movement at all. It was spooky. It was late evening, and the streets were empty.

There was a dull light coming from one of the upstairs windows, signalling that someone at least was inside the house. I decided to take the risk, and I walked briskly over to the fence.

Josie had joked before to Eddie that since she'd started seeing him he'd had their fence electrified to keep him out, but I knew that she had been joking. At least, I hoped she'd been joking. I wrapped my hands in my sleeves and reached out tentatively towards the fence...

...and they settled on the metal without so much as a spark. My heart, which had been in my throat, settled back down as I took a firmer grip. I dragged myself up and over the fence, landing hard on the gravel beyond.

I stared towards the front door, half expecting Josie's father to burst through screaming at him to get off his land, or something. But there was still no movement at all.

I walked slowly and carefully over to the door, wincing each time my feet crunched the gravel beneath them. So much for being quiet, I thought.

As I got closer to the front door I started to worry. It hung slightly open, but there was no light coming from beyond. In fact, the only light I could see was still the dull light from the second floor window. I quickened my pace a little

I stopped at the door, and peered through the gap. "Hello?" I called out, no longer worried about being seen. I was more concerned about what had happened here.

There was no answer. I reached out a hand and pushed the door open slowly. Inside was a dark corridor. I took a couple of nervous steps inside.

The light switch was on the wall next to me, but when I switched it the lights didn't come on. And a couple more steps inside I realised why.

The first room I came to had been completely ransacked. The lights had been smashed, the TV broken... A robbery, or so it had been made to look like.

The light... someone had left the upstairs light on. Had they just missed that room, or had they left it on deliberately? I ran up the stairs, and as I climbed them my nose filled with the most horrific smell I had ever come across. It was like... rotting meat.

I already half knew what I'd find in the room, but it didn't dull the shock. Josie... and her parents... murdered. Their bodies were strewn across the floor, drenched in blood which had stained the carpets beneath them.

I gagged, and struggled not to throw up at the sight of it. My mind immediately went to Eddie. Could he have been capable of doing something this... terrible? He'd tried to kill me, but _this_... this was just sick.

Josie's parents had had their throats cut. It looked like they'd been dragged into the middle of the floor and laid next to each other, like whoever had done had been trying to... present them to whoever found the bodies.

Josie, on the other hand... it looked like she'd been beaten to death. Her face was almost completely destroyed, as though it had been beaten on even after she'd died.

As I'd been stood there, I'd sunk further and further into a daze. My mind filled with a high pitched whine, and my eyes started to grow brighter and brighter until I was looking at the bodies through a white haze...

it was the smell, I think. It overwhelmed me, and my mind must have rebelled... tried to bury itself away to escape what it was feeling. My knees started to feel weak, and I almost fell. It was enough to make me realise what kind of danger I was in. There was no telling whether whoever had done this was still here, or if they'd left any kind of... booby traps, like Eddie had done at my house.

There was an envelope attached to Josie's body. I'd seen it as soon as I came through the door, but I didn't want to believe it. It was the same type of envelope that Eddie had left at my house, just before it exploded.

I inched towards it, struggling to avoid stepping in the dried blood. God, the smell was overwhelming.

As soon as my fingers touched the envelope, I grabbed it and ran down the stairs and out of that... tomb... as quickly as my legs would carry me. I ran and ran, for I don't know how long. But when I stopped, I was at the edge of the island. I stared out at the water for the longest time. It seemed so... inviting. I could just... cross it, leave this place behind, and never have to worry about... _this_... again.

But then my attention turned back to the envelope in my hand, and the red stain on its corner. I knew that I wouldn't be able to leave. Not without answers.

I ripped open the envelope and read the note inside...

_'Stars awash in a sheen of light, _it read. "_It calls out loud in vile delight. Listeners endure in fright. Vicious brute that reigns at night, Evil whelped of heinous bite, Renewed by wax, it regains might. A leading way to slay the beast, Get the hidden weapon thus released'._

Up until then, all I'd felt inside was... dread, fear, trepidation. When I read the riddle, I filled with _anger_. Before when I'd felt like that, I'd been afraid of it. But now I welcomed it. It calmed me down. Made me _focus._

This was a game to him. He was playing. With _me_. And now, I knew, it was time to end this.

_Stars awash in a sheen of light..._

The riddle was a tough one. I hated the idea of playing along with Eddie, but if I wanted to find him I needed to figure out the answer to this riddle.

The last two lines were important, I figured. _'A leading way to slay the beast, Get the hidden weapon thus released". _These two lines were different to the others, as though they were they were the riddle, and the other lines were just... clues.

Beast... weapon.

And then I saw it...

_**S**__tars awash in a sheen of light..._  
_**I**__t calls out loud in vile delight..._  
_**L**__isteners endure in fright...  
__**V**__icious brute that reigns at night...  
__**E**__vil whelped of heinous bite...  
__**R**__enewed by wax, it regains might..._

Silver is the hidden weapon to slay the beast. So the beast was a Werewolf.

And I knew where Eddie was leading me...


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

_The Curse of the Werewolf_ had been playing at the old Opera house for the last week and a half. Josie was... _had been_... in love with the opera, and she'd been bugging Eddie to go with her and see it. But Eddie had flat out refused every time she'd asked.

That day it was raining heavily. It always seemed to rain around the old Opera House.

Fifteen years earlier – before I was born - this place was thriving. From what people tell me, it was like every day brought a new wonder, a new performance from another corner of the world. But as the depression ravaged the city financially, the Opera House became a symbol of the gulf between the rich and the poor. This was, in part, because of the location it had been built in.

Park Row, the street in Gotham North which I was walking slowly down, was a crime ridden hell hole. I mean, it wasn't the Narrows, but it was still a street that you wouldn't walk down unless you couldn't avoid it. And the sight of a bunch of wealthy business people all arriving in this financially deprived street to watch an Opera eventually heightened the resentment, to the point where the locals became so aggressive that no one wanted to put on a performance there.

So the building became neglected, and worn down. Only local theatre companies would put on shows there, with audiences never getting about a couple of dozen people.

I reached the front doors of the Opera House just after 9pm. They were barred shut – no show tonight, it seemed. I approached them nervously, unsure of what would be waiting for me inside. I shook the doors, and banged on them, but they did not move an inch.

Around the side of the building was an alley which ran along both the Opera House and the hotel next to it. This alley, I knew, was infamous – it was the place where Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered all those years ago. Knowing what I now knew about their son, Bruce, this murder... and this _place_... took on an almost mythical quality. I didn't know if his parents' murder was his sole motivation, but I was sure in my heart that this place was where the rage that he would eventually channel into the _Batman_ was first born.

And, as I walked along it, I realised the truth... this was just another place. There was nothing different about it, nothing special... The murder of the Wayne's could have happened anywhere in the city, not just here. That was the most sickening thing about Gotham. The Wayne's murder became infamous – everybody knew what had happened because they were rich and they were famous. But crimes like that happened every single day, and no one paid any attention to them.

But my mind was wandering to places that it shouldn't have been wandering. There was danger here, I knew. If Eddie was leading me here then it had to be for some reason.

At the back end of the alley was a large metal door, bolted closed. It looked like it hadn't been used for a long time – there were piles of trash bags piled up around and in front of it, and the pad lock which held it closed was so rusty that it looked as though it would come apart with the slightest effort.

But when I got close to the door, I noticed the was the dirt on the floor had been disturbed. There were places where it had been swept away, like something had been dragged over it and had pulled the dirt away as it passed across. Someone had dragged the bags away – presumably to get to the door – and then piled them back up when they had finished.

This was where I would enter.

As I had thought, the pad lock on the door – underneath, I'd been a little worried about how I would get past it – came apart with only a little pressure. The door was heavy and its hinges were so rusted that they let out the most horrific screech when they moved, but it swung open easily enough.

I took a deep breath. I had no idea what I would find inside the Opera House, or if I would even make it back out alive. This whole situation was a little overwhelming, and it seemed as though I was just being dragged along with no control of my own. It was that moment that I decided that it would end that night... if Eddie was actually there, at least.

I took a few nervous steps inside. There was no light other than from the street lamps outside the door, and the further inside I got the dimmer it became. I was surprised at how silent it was inside – there were many cars passing outside, but however much I strained my ears I couldn't hear the engines.

It wasn't long until I came across my first obstacle, and it was then that I knew for sure Eddie was here. I found myself in a circular room – it was dark and it was dirty. There were seven doors around the edges, each with a different picture on the door. It was a storage room, I knew – these door would lead to different parts of the building which hold different props. Even though I knew this, I couldn't help but think about those rooms that you sometimes find in the circus – _pick a door... any door... but make sure you pick the right one, or you're in for a shock..._ In movies, there was always a lion or something behind the wrong doors...

I hoped that wasn't the case here.

But which one was the right door? For all I knew, this building was a maze. If I went in the wrong direction I could be here forever.

That was when I noticed the envelope on the floor, and the moment I became convinced that Eddie was here. I bent down and picked it up, ripping it open quickly.

_'Four of us are in your field', _the note read. Another riddle, as though this were all just a game to him. I suddenly felt a wave of anger wash over me... _Good, _I thought. _Maybe it'll help me do what needs to be done... Damn you Eddie._

I shook my head, and looked back to the note.

'_Four of us are in your field,  
But our differences keep us at yield_

_First, a one that is no fool_  
_Though he resembles a gardener's tool_

_Next, one difficult to split in two_  
_And a girl once had one as big as her shoe_

_Then, to the mind, one's a lovely bonder_  
_And truancy makes it grow fonder_

_Last, a stem connecting dots of three_  
_Knowing all this, what are we?'_

This one was easy, especially as it must have been pointing me to the right door, and there were only seven pictures to choose from.

The four suits of a deck of cards...

The Spade is the gardener's tool. That part was the easiest to get, and the rest just kind of... falls into place. The diamond is hardest to split in two... and the riddle also referenced the old Mother Goose rhyme "Little Girl and Queen", in which the Queen gives the girl a diamond 'as big as her shoe', in exchange for the girl picking her a bunch of roses... my mom used to read those kinds of things to me when I was little...

The Heart bonds with the mind to form love, and the old cliché is that absence makes the heart grow fonder... And the final clue was the most literal. A stem connecting dots of three is pretty much an exact description of what the _club _looks like...

And, once the riddle was deciphered, I knew which door to take – it was right in front of me. The image was of a dress, which suggested that the room was for storing clothes. But underneath this image someone had scraped something into the wood; _Poker Room_. I figured the people who worked there – or used to work there – used it as a hole in which to play card games.

This was the right door...

I pushed it open nervously. It was pitch black beyond, and I took a few steps inside, feeling my way along the wall.

Suddenly, the room was lit up with a blinding light, which stunned me. I closed my eyes tightly to try and block out the light.

And then the voice...

"Well", it said. "It's about damn time. A few more hours and I would have had to come looking for you".

I gritted my teeth. The anger was back, filling every fibre of my body. _Eddie..._

I opened my eyes slowly, letting them get used to the brightness. Through the haze I could make Eddie out, maybe ten yards in front of me. He was carrying something... it looked like a crow bar. As my vision cleared more and more I could see that it was stained with blood. Was that what he had used to beat Josie to death?

I didn't speak... I _couldn't _speak. All of a sudden, the only thing I wanted was to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze the life out of him.

And all Eddie did was smile back at me, in the face of my rage. "It's good to see you too", he said. He didn't make any move to come towards me, so I took a few steps forward.

"Ah", he said, raising the metal bar in front of him as a warning. "Sorry, Timothy. You're playing _my _game, and you'll follow the rules".

"Eddie", I growled. "This isn't a game. You killed Josie, and her parents. You tried to kill _me_. I'm not playing your game any more. This is over".

Eddie's face contorted in mock sadness. "Awwww", he said. "And I was just starting to have a little fun, too..." Then he turned angry. "You _are _playing my game. If you don't then Josie won't be the only death on your conscience".

"_My _conscience?" I yelled. "What the hell are you talking about? You're insane. The only person responsible is _you"._

"Well...", Eddie sighed. "That's unfortunate. You still don't have any idea what this is about, do you? It doesn't matter yet, I suppose... You know, we're not alone here. There's another victim, hiding in plain sight... can you guess who it is?"

"Eddie..." I yelled. "Stop this".

But he just ignored me. "Hmmm", he said. "I'll give you a clue, shall I? OK. _'Five hundred begins it, five hundred ends it, five in the middle is seen, first of all figures, the first of all letters, take up their stations between. Join all together, and then you will bring before you the name of an eminent King..._

"Oh, and you'd best hurry up. They don't have much time".

I hated this. If there was someone else here, and they were in danger, then I had no choice but to play along.

So... the riddle was obviously to do with numbers. But also letters... if they spell out the name of an 'eminent king'. That meant Roman Numerals. From there, all I needed to do was match up the Roman Numerals to the clues...

_Five hundred begins it, five hundred ends it..._ So it starts and ends with D, the Roman Numeral for five hundred.

_Five in the middle is seen... _The middle letter is a V.

_First of all figures, the first of all letters take up their stations in between... _The first of all letters is A, and the first of all figures in Roman Numerals would be I.

_David..._ Spider's real name.

"...Spider?" I said softly. "Your brother? Where is he, Eddie?"

Eddie's face lit up in a wide grin, and he applauded sarcastically. "Well done!" he cried. "Where is he, you ask? Well... he in a place where he'll be... _washed clean"._

My eyes darted sideways, to the large washing machines lined up against the wall. Spider was in one of these?

I leapt towards the nearest one, and threw open the top. In the background, I could hear Eddie laughing loudly. It grated, but I forced myself to ignore it. At least, until I found Spider.

He wasn't in the first two, so I just carried on moving up the line. I finally found him in the one closest to Eddie. It looked as though he'd been beaten badly – presumably with the same metal bar the Eddie still carried. He was out cold. I reached my hand in, meaning to pull him out, but I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my legs, and I collapsed to the floor.

Eddie stood over me. The pain had come from him striking me hard with the weapon in his hands. He leaned over me, smiling still.

"You know..." he said, looking over at Spider. "I should have done this years ago. To him, I mean. The bastard left me. He _left me alone_ while my parents were murdered. A full day I was sat on my own, scared out of my mind. I've hated him since..."

I pushed myself up onto my elbows. "They were his parents too, Eddie", I sighed. "What do you want?"

The look Eddie gave me then will live with me for the rest of my life... It was... heartbroken.

He walked away, and I climbed slowly to my feet. "What do I want?" he growled angrily. "..._ If you break me I do not stop working, if you touch me I may be snared, if you lose me nothing will matter. _So... you tell me, Timmy. What do I want?"

I think... looking back, I always knew what Eddie was really feeling. I just didn't want to admit it to myself. I didn't want to risk our friendship by having to tell him that I just... didn't feel the same way.

"...", I hesitated. "My heart?"

Tears began to flow down Eddie's face. I think that was the first time I realised how... fractured he seemed. Like he was fighting with himself the whole way, and his insides were tearing in two.

"I _hate _you!" he screamed. "All those times I blew of Josie so I could be with you, and you didn't even _notice!_ All those nights we spent in your room. Do you know how _hard _that was? How hard it was to stay quiet".

"Eddie..." I sighed. "Please, I had no idea you felt like this.."

"_Liar!" _he screamed. He dived towards me and tried to hit me with the crow bar, but I jumped to the side just in time. "You knew! How could you _not?_"

He was right. I did know, but I was scared of it. If I'd acknowledged it sooner – even if it was to say no – would that have saved Josie's life? Would Eddie have been able to accept it? I'll never know, but now I knew why Eddie had said her death was on my conscience.

"But..." I cried. "If you feel this way about me, why try to kill me?"

Eddie face contorted into a horrible grimace. "I _felt _this way about you", he growled. "And I hated myself for it. I'm... I'm a _freak_. A _homo_. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't cut it out of myself. I couldn't... I _hate you!_ I still want your heart... but now I want to _rip it out of your fucking chest!_"

Eddie dived towards me again, but I couldn't get away quick enough. I grabbed hold of the metal bar, and we struggled with it for a while. He kicked me in the stomach, trying to dislodge my grip, but I wouldn't let go. I swung around and threw him over my shoulder.

The horrific crack that I heard when his head hit the floor haunts my nightmares to this day. For the longest time, I just waited for him to start moving again. To get back up and try and fight me again...

But he didn't. He just lay there, completely motionless. I started to panic. Had I just killed him? I couldn't hear any breathing...

I looked down at the metal bar that I now held in my hands, and at my bare hands smearing their fingerprints over it, and at the mix of Spider and Josie's blood which stained it...

And I ran...


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

I don't know how long I spent just... standing there. The metal door had slammed shut behind me as I had dived through it. It made me feel safer, knowing that I was no longer in the same building as... Eddie.

Was he dead? I'd panicked so much that I hadn't taken time to even _check_. He could be lying there in agony for all I knew. I felt like I was about to throw up.

My hand moved on its own into my jacket pocket, and clasped around my cell phone. However angry I felt toward Eddie, I couldn't just leave him there. Besides, there was Spider to think about as well...

I dialled 911. The dial tone greeted me – it rang a few times, and I started to worry that no one would answer. But then... a click, and a voice...

"Hello, what is your emergency?" the voice said.

"Um..." I hesitated. What would I say? "There's... there's been an accident at the Gotham Opera House".

"What is the nature of the accident, sir?" The voice was... horribly _nasal_. She didn't sound as though she were even interested in what I was saying.

"There are two people injured", I said quickly. "One of them might have broken his neck, the other looks like he's been beaten up badly. Send an ambulance quick".

I had tried to make it sound as though it was urgent... but the woman responded in the same dull, disinterested tone.

"What is your name, sir?" she asked.

I couldn't tell her. There was no way I could tell her. I didn't want anyone to know that I was here. My hand moved the phone away from my ear, and I spent a moment staring at it. After maybe five seconds, I could just about hear the operator repeat her question, and I cut the call off and prayed that she would actually send someone out to check.

And that was when things started to go to hell... again. I was about to walk away – to leave this place behind me and never look back. But I heard footsteps coming towards me. I couldn't risk anyone seeing me in the area. I was still convinced that the cops were looking for me – how could they not be? My house had blown up, my friend had disappeared, and I'd vanished from a hospital just before they were going to talk to me... I had to hide.

I dived behind the closest pile of trash I could, and hoped that the people coming towards me – whoever they were – wouldn't notice me.

The footsteps grew louder and louder, until they stopped barely a yard away from where I was hidden. There were a few moments of silence. From my hiding place, I couldn't see out – I couldn't see who it was. Hell, it could have been a drug deal for all I knew. Wouldn't that be ironic? I survive all this shit with Eddie, only to be killed after accidentally stumbling across a couple of fucking druggies.

But then... a voice broke through the silence. It sounded a little muffled coming through the black bags I was buried under.

"You said you knew who was behind the murders", a voice said. It was female, and it was deathly calm. Unlike me. As soon as the woman had mentioned murders, my heart jumped into my mouth. Looking back, it was a little bit ludicrous for me to assume that they were talking about Eddie's murders... but I guess I was a little paranoid. "A cop, you said".

A cop? That didn't make sense. At least, not if they were talking about Eddie...

"You didn't really buy that, did you?" another voice asked. This second voice was... a little familiar. There were more footsteps, as though one of the two people were pacing around. God, I couldn't think of who's voice that was. They were trying to sound... confident, I guess, but it just came across sounding small and frightened. I'd heard it not long ago... who the hell was it?

_'What's your name, kid?'_

It was Ramirez. Anna Ramirez, the cop who I'd gone to see the day before. What the hell was she doing here? I moved my position ever so slightly, trying to see through a gap in the trash. There was a little nose as I moved, and my heart stopped for a moment... but I guess they couldn't hear it over the sound of the rain hitting the ground around us.

|There was a long pause then. I don't know... maybe the two of them were trying to out stare one another. I could feel the tension from where I was, and I couldn't even see anything. Finally, the other woman spoke.

"I guess not...", she said softly. Then I heard footsteps again, but this time they were coming towards me. _Shit, _my head screamed. Had they heard me? _Shit shit shit. _As they got closer and closer I started to panic. I was on the brink of standing up and running for my life, but then the footsteps stopped just to my side. It seemed like whoever was moving was just heading towards the wall...

"When did you find out?" the same woman asked.

"Does it matter?" Ramirez replied quickly. "What matters is where we go from here".

Laughter pierced the tension. The second woman had moved close to the wall, and I could just about make out her shoes through gaps in the trash bags. "So...", she said. "You're not here to try to arrest me. I'm assuming you're looking for some kind of deal. Why don't you just cut the crap and tell me what you want?"

"I want the same thing that everyone wants..." Ramirez replied. "I want money..."

Was this the same woman that I'd met? When I'd spoken to her she seemed... full of remorse. Like a frightened child who'd done something wrong and was agonising about whether to come clean... Could she really be trying to blackmail this woman... whoever she was?

I saw the second woman's feet move away from the wall. "Still trying to pay those medical bills, huh?" she asked. "Why so surprised? We know all about you, Lieutenant. Every dirty little secret. And we know exactly what happened to Harvey Dent. What I don't know is why you're alive when he murdered everyone else."

_Shit_, I thought. This was about the Batman. It had to be. Why else would they bring up Harvey Dent, and the cover up? What are they planning? Is Ramirez about to sell Gordon out?

A long pause followed – so long that I half thought neither woman would speak again. When I'd first spoken to Anna Ramirez outside her house, I had noticed that she wasn't the best at concealing what she was really thinking. This pause felt... nervous. As though something had just happened that had derailed her. Was it the fact that the woman knew so much about her... or something else?

"Who's we?" I head Ramirez asked. There was a definite undercurrent of hesitation in her voice now. It seemed as though she were trying to play this other woman... but she wasn't very good at it. I hoped for her sake that the other woman wasn't good at reading people...

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you", the other woman said. "Let's just say that... a _reckoning _is coming, and I'm blazing the trail".

"How does killing three people blaze a trail for anything?" Ramirez asked. Her voice was quivering, and I knew that the game was almost surely up. If the other woman couldn't hear the fear in her voice, then she would definitely get suspicious about the question.

I don't know why... but I felt like I needed to help her. It didn't make sense to me. I'd only met her once, and that was only for a few minutes. Why did I feel so... responsible?

I shifted my weight forward, and tried to get myself into a better position to see the two women. But that proved to be a big mistake. I felt the trash bag move before I heard it... I had knocked one loose completely, and it slowly rolled down to the floor between the two women.

_Fuck! _My head screamed at me to run. I struggled to climb to my feet, but before I even took one single step I felt an iron grip plant itself on my shoulder and drag me away. It was the second woman. She kept me pointing away from her so I still couldn't get a good look at her face, but I could see Ramirez's face... and she looked just as frightened as I was.

The second woman stood me in front of her and kept me in place with a strong grip on my neck. I struggled to look around, and I caught the briefest of glimpses of the woman's face... and it was another face I recognised. The woman from the hospital... the FBI agent that I had knocked unconscious, and who had murdered one of the doctors...

"Well now", she purred. She wasn't even trying to hide the confidence in her voice now. She was in control, and she knew it. "What do we have here? A little spy, listening in on things he shouldn't be".

For whatever reason... I wasn't frightened any more. I don't know... it just felt _right_ that it would end here. Maybe I was still in shock over what happened to Eddie, but I didn't even want to struggle any more. My eyes met with Ramirez's.

"This is a problem, isn't it?" the woman said to Ramirez. I could see her eyes dart around. She was trying to find a way out of this mess... but I couldn't see one. Not one that ended with both of us alive, anyway. "We need to take care of this. And by 'we' I mean... _you_". I saw Anna's eyes widen, and I guess the other woman did too because she let out another loud laugh. "If you want to strike a deal with me", she continued. "Then you have to prove that you're genuine. And the only way I'll believe you is if you have as much to lose as me. So..."

I felt her move a little behind me. One of her hands moved away from my neck and down to one of her pockets. Out of it she pulled a small knife, and she offered the handle to Ramirez. "I want you to take this knife – the knife that killed three of your _colleagues_ – and cut this little boy's throat".

This was it. This was the end. I didn't know if Ramirez would really kill me to keep up her charade, but if she wouldn't then she would have to expose herself. But I knew what this woman was capable of – I'd seen how quickly and quietly she'd moved in the hospital, and I didn't think Ramirez would stand a chance against her. If Ramirez was really trying to bring this woman down, and punish her for her crimes like I believed she was, then she was the one who needed to live.

I tried to tell her. I tried to put everything I was thinking into my eyes. _Do it_, they said. _Do it and take this bitch down._

Anna walked slowly towards the two of us and lifted her hand slowly towards the knife. I really believed that she would do it, and I really believed that it was the right thing to do...

But she didn't. Her other hand darted forward and grabbed my jacket. She yanked me forwards out of the other woman's grip, and threw me onto the ground.

"Run!" I head her scream. I struggled to get to my feet, and before I could even manage that I heard the gun shot. I spun round, and found myself face to face with Ramirez. She looked... confused. Like she didn't know what was happening.

Her clothes were slowly being stained with her blood. The other woman stood maybe a yard behind her, gun still in hand. Ramirez had been shot. I started to walk backwards slowly towards the end of the alley. I saw Ramirez collapse to the ground, still with the same confused look on her face, and I saw the other woman start to walk towards me.

She lifted her gun again and fired at me. I felt the bullet whiz past me head, and that was enough to shake me out of my daze. I spun round and ran as fast as my tired legs would carry me. Another couple of shots hit the wall near me...

I headed up Park Row... I didn't know where I was going, just... _away _from there. After maybe twenty seconds, I heard another loud gunshot coming from the alley behind me...

Ramirez was dead. I don't know how I knew, but I knew it for sure. She was dead, and it was my fault. That's yet another death on my conscience.

I heard the sound of sirens in the distance coming towards me. The ambulance I had asked for... it was here. I don't know why, but the sirens made me even more determined to get out of there. It didn't look like the woman was coming after me, but I didn't want to hang around. I dived into the nearest cab.

And I cried into the car seat.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

I clutched the phone tight to my ear, and listened to it ring. I had gotten out of the cab a few blocks away from Park Row, still as dazed as when I'd climbed into it. It was late night, and all around me people were laughing or shouting... or _watching. _I didn't hear any of it. Just the sound of the phone against my ear.

_Please_, I remember thinking desperately. _Please pick up. Please answer._

The wait seemed to last forever, but finally I heard a click on the other end of the phone... and then a familiar voice.

"Hello?" it said. My father's voice. I hadn't heard it since before all this had happened, and I almost cried with relief. I had to swallow hard, to force the lump in my throat down before I could speak.

"...Dad..." I said quietly. "It's me".

"Timmy?" he said. "Timmy, thank God! Where are you? Are you hurt?"

"..." I hesitated. Would it be dangerous for me to go home? Probably. But it would be dangerous whatever I did. "I'm on Hudson Avenue, by the pawn shop. Will you come get me?"

"Of course I will", he answered quickly. "Are you safe?" He must have been able to tell that something was wrong. My voice had started to crack, and I was forcing back tears again.

"I'm fine dad", I said. "Just... hurry, OK?" I hung up the phone, leant against the wall and let myself slide slowly downwards.

* * *

It took maybe twenty minutes for my dad to drive across town, and I was close to sleeping by the time my dad arrived. And believe me, when I saw the familiar sight of his truck coming towards me along the road, it was the best feeling I can ever remember having. I didn't move at all, just watched as the truck pulled up slowly in front of me.

It had started to rain – I don't know how long I'd been sat there getting soaked, but the patter of the drops hitting the ground around me only registered at that moment. I heard the click of a truck door opening on the other side, and then the slam of it being closed. And then footsteps, circling around the front of the truck towards me.

A smile spread across my face as I squinted up at my dad standing over me. He had a frown on his face, but he was worried rather than angry – I guess by then I must have looked pretty bad. My clothes were still charred from the explosion, and I probably had blood stained into them as well. I bet he didn't know what to think.

But he didn't shout, he didn't grab me or pull me up. He just knelt down in front of me and looked into my eyes. And then, after a few moments of us just staring at each other, he leant forward and wrapped his arms around me, and I buried my head in his shoulders and closed my eyes.

I don't remember ever hugging my dad before then. I remember... hating him, resenting him, blaming him for things that were never his fault. Looking back, of course I feel guilty. I feel like I should have told him then and there that I was sorry, and that I loved him.

But I didn't. I didn't say a single word. I felt him pull me gently on to my feet, and he helped me into the passenger seat of the truck. I leant my head back and let myself zone out again.

"...so they've put us up in a hotel", I heard his voice say. I must have blacked out for a few minutes, because we were miles away, and it seemed like my dad had been talking to me for a while.

"It's a pretty nice room", he continued. "And there's room service, which is fun. They won't tell me anything about what happened. I mean, I know that there was an explosion, and that you were close by when it happened. But other than that...

"Hell, no one knew where you were. It's been, what, two days? Have you been on the streets since then?"

He glanced across at me, but he must have seen that I wasn't going to answer him. Whatever energy had been keeping me going since this all started had drained away, and it was all I could manage to keep my eyes open. I felt my dad's eyes burning a hole in me, and I knew he was struggling not to bombard me with questions. Of course I'd have to tell him... eventually. Not that day, though.

My dad sighed and turned his attention back to the road. We were coming up to a hotel. The insurance people must have put us up in there after the house was destroyed. That must have been why I hadn't been able to get in touch with him before.

The truck pulled up in the car park in front of the hotel. I passed through the lobby and into the lift, and not a single thing registered in my head. I can't tell you what colour the walls were, or what the person at the counter looked like, and how it smelt... even what the hotel was called. I just remember... floating through the corridors, into our room.

My dad had been right, though. It was a nice room. That I remember. It had two separate bedrooms, and my dad helped my into one of them and on to the bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

* * *

"_This is a problem, isn't it?"_

_I was back in that alley. Back between those two women – Ramirez, and the other woman. She towered above me, grinning down at me. Her eyes were... mad, filled with hate. She would kill me without thinking._

_Ramirez stood a few feet away. There was a bullet hole in her head, and I could smell the blood that covered her face. Her eyes were empty._

_We need to take care of this", the woman's voice boomed out above me. Ramirez didn't react. Of course she didn't react. How could she? She was dead._

"_And by 'we' I mean... you"._

_Ramirez started to drift towards me – she didn't walk, she floated, as though something was carrying her above the ground. Her head hand reached towards me, and I tried to back away from it. But the other woman was behind me, pushing me towards her, laughing and laughing. She shoved me forwards, right into Ramirez, right into her blood stained shirt._

_I fell on top of her corpse. My face was inches away from the wound in her head. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. _

_I pushed myself to my feet and spun around, only to come face to face with the devil woman, grinning the same grin. I tried to run but my feet were stuck to the ground. My eyes followed her hand as it moved slowly into her jacket. When it reappeared, it was holding a gun, and it was pointed straight at me._

_A voice in my head was screaming at me to run, but my legs wouldn't listen. And still she just stood there with that... viper like smile._

_And then... she pulled the trigger. Once. Twice. Three times. I saw the gun recoil each time, and felt a sudden pain in my stomach, like it was on fire._

_And she spoke, deafening me. "I'm coming for you, Timothy", she said. "I'm coming"._

* * *

I screamed and shot upwards, so hard and so fast that I fell right out of bed. And I jumped again as I heard three more gun shots, ringing in my ears. My head spun round in a panic, trying to see her, trying to get away.

But... they weren't gun shots, we they? The sound was too... dull. More like someone was... banging hard on something. It was the door.

I heard rustling from the bedroom next to mine, where my dad had been sleeping, and then the sound of his door creeping open. The knocking at the door came again, and I heard my dad's voice call out.

"All right, all right", he said. "I'm coming". I heard his footsteps moving outside my bedroom door, and I stood and moved to open it. Then came the sound of the hotel room door clicking open.

"Can I help you?" my dad's voice asked. He sounded as though he were still asleep. I glanced at the clock next to my bed, and I understood why. It was three in the morning.

"Good evening, Mr Drake". My hand froze on the door handle when I heard that voice. _Her _voice. The same as in my dream. She'd come for me. I felt this...cold feeling creep into the pit of my stomach and work its way upwards to my throat. "My name is Agent Rudra. I'd like to ask your son a few questions, if I may".

I let my hand push down as gently as it could, and winced as the door clicked open. I opened it slightly – as much as I dared – and peered through the crack.

"It's three in the morning", my dad said, not even trying to hide his irritation. "Couldn't this have waited a few hours?" I could see my dad's back – he was still in his boxers – but I couldn't see the figure in the doorway. I knew it was her. My mind started to race – what should I do? I had to get away, but I couldn't leave my dad with her.

"I'm afraid not, sir", she purred. "It's a matter of national security. May I come in?"

_No! _I screamed at him in my head. _Don't let her in! Keep her away from me._

I heard my dad let out a long sigh, and for a moment I thought he would send her away. But that hope didn't last long. "Fine", he said. "He's asleep though. I'll have to wake him".

I saw my dad turn away from the door and turn towards my room, so that he was facing right at me. As he moved I could finally make out the figure in the doorway - _Rudra_, she had called herself. _Shiva_ was the name she'd used in the Hospital.

She moved quickly, and silently, into the hotel room. As the door closed behind her, I caught a glimpse of something shining in her hand, but before I could even call out she moved up behind my father and raised the knife to his throat. I saw his eyes widen in surprise as the blade dug in to his throat, and heard a gurgle escape his mouth as he tried to scream.

Rudra moved away from my dad as he collapsed to the ground, still swinging his arms as though trying to fight her off. He didn't realise that he was already dead. She just... watched him, no emotion in her eyes, until he stopped moving.

My father was dead.

My hand squeezed harder on the door handle. I wanted to scream, to kill her, strangle the life out of her. But I knew that if I did that she'd kill me just as easily as my dad. I forced myself to turn away – promising that I would make her pay somehow. I needed to get away from there quickly, and the window was the only escape route. I ran to it, shoved it open as wide as it would go and carefully climbed out.

Luckily we were only on the third floor, but I was still a tricky climb down. As soon as I dared, I leapt from the side of the building. But I did it too soon – I landed awkwardly, twisting my ankle. I tried to stifle the scream, but I couldn't stay on my feet. As I fell, I heard a loud bang from above me, and a bullet whizzed past my head and buried itself in the ground beside me.

I didn't even look up. Though the pain was close to unbearable, I shot to my feet and forced myself to run.

As soon as I dared, I glanced back over my shoulder. I saw her just as she reached the bottom of the building – she had climbed down after me. She started running, following me. And with my twisted ankle, I knew there was no chance of me outrunning her.

I turned sharply around a corner, not knowing where I was or where I was going. Just... desperately trying to get away from her. There were no people around to help, no places to hide... No chance.

And then, whatever slim hope was left vanished as I realised where I was. Ten yards in front of me was... nothing. The shore. I was at the edge of the island, and there was nowhere left to go. I stood there for a moment, panting, and then I walked to the edge and looked down. There was a thirty foot sheer drop into the dark water below.

I heard her footsteps behind me, and I turned around slowly to face her. We both stood there, panting, just looking at each other. And then she finally spoke.

"You..." she said, still breathing heavily. "You little... Why did you have to stick your nose in to my business? Everything was going perfectly, just as I'd planned it, until you showed up. Well... I suppose once you're dead it won't matter".

She raised her gun, and I swallowed hard. I knew there was no way out of this, but... I wanted to live, even if it was only for a few minutes longer.

"So..." I said nervously. "That's it? You just come into Gotham, kill whoever you want, and then leave? That's your plan?"

She smirked – she knew I was just playing for time. But she didn't shoot me. Not yet, anyway. "What, you think that just because I'm going to kill you it means I owe you an explanation?" she said bitterly. "You're nothing. Just... a cockroach to stamp on. Your father was even less"

"And what about Ramirez?" I asked. "What was she?"

"She was... unfortunate", Rudra replied. "If she'd been a little more... obedient, she might still be alive".

I looked back over my shoulder, nervously, down at the water below me. "So..." I said. "Is this all about Dent? Or is it about _Batman_?"

For the first time, Rudra looked surprised. But that look quickly turned to a familiar grin. "You know more than you should", she said. "It's lucky that we stumbled into each other. You seem to know a secret that I want to keep.

"And to answer your questions, this isn't about Dent or Batman. This is about _Gotham_. My employers have... big plans for the city, and I'm just laying the groundwork. Part of that means making sure that Dent's legacy stays intact, and that the Batman... he stays hidden. He stays safe. At least until the time comes..."

She raised her gun again, and I knew my time was up. "Goodbye, kid", she said.

And then a gunshot. I winced, but there was no pain. For a moment I thought it must have been because of the shock, and I looked down at my body. There was no blood. No holes.

I looked up at the woman stood in front of me. Her face was a mixture of... surprise, confusion... pain. A trickle of blood poured out of a hole in her stomach, and she collapsed to the floor. My eyes followed her to the ground and watched – with some satisfaction, I'll admit – as the life drained out of her.

"Are you OK kid?" A voice. A man's voice, coming from behind where Rudra was stood. I looked up into a face that I recognised.

He made a move towards me, but I stepped backwards, closer to the edge, and he stopped. "My name's Jim", he said. His voice was soft, and his eyes seemed sincere... but I knew I couldn't trust him. "I'm the Police Commissioner. You can trust me, son".

"I'm not your son", I replied bitterly. "And I know who you are. You're the person spreading lies about... Batman. About _Dent_. I can't trust you".

I saw his eyes widen in surprise, and I knew that what I was saying was right. He was spreading lies, and he knew it. He opened his mouth, about to speak, but stopped himself as a group of other cops arrived behind him.

I smiled weakly, finally knowing what I needed to do. What I knew was dangerous. It could... demolish everything. The only safe place was... somewhere else.

"Secrets and lies... they don't stay hidden forever, you know", I sighed. My feet shuffled backwards, so close to the edge that even a slight breeze could have sent me plummeting down into the water.

Gordon just looked at me... eyes full of sadness and regret. "... I know", he said quietly.

And then I fell.

* * *

**Afterword**

_Okay, so I figured I'd add a little explanation about what 'Tales From Gotham City' is. Basically, it's a bunch of stories - four or five by the end, I think, plus some shorter one offs - which are individual, but link together to make one larger story. So at the moment there are three, which are;  
_

**It Was Ramirez** - a story about what happened to Anna Ramirez after the Dark Knight

**It's Not Who I Am Underneath** - a story about a young boy devastated by the lies about the Batman

**Your Hands Look Plenty Filthy To Me** - which explores how Jim Gordon copes after The Dark Knight with both the lies, and his life in Gotham (this is currently in progress)

_Each is its own story, focussing on a different character in the Nolanverse, but each one links to the others. If you like this story, then please read the others too._

_There are also a few substories - things I wrote in about an hour or so, which are not important to the overall story but just flesh it out a little. If you're interested, they are;_

**Brian** - a story about Brian, the fake Batman

**Who Picked Up Rachel** - a story about Rachel's final moments

**Coleman Reese** - a (very grim) exploration of what happened to Coleman Reese after Bruce Wayne saved his life


End file.
